Preponderance of the Evidence
by wannabehermy
Summary: Elizabeth Bennet is an attorney with a fantastic record. William Darcy is a 1st Year Law Student in need of some world experience. Forced to take him under her wing, Lizzy finds herself turning into the worst cliche. Rated T until necessary.
1. May it Please the Court

Elizabeth Bennet paced the courtroom with control and deliberation. As she passed the jury she made a point to look each and every one of them in the eye. She had handpicked this jury and she was damn well going to get them to see it her way. Not just because it was her job, but because it was what she loved to do. She did not have long before the judge would grow impatient, but she knew the plaintiff's attorney was already growing restless. Attorney Lucas simply didn't have a case and she had not realized it until Elizabeth had placed two key witnesses on the stand as her case-in-chief. Normally, as a defense attorney such miraculous finds did not simply fall into her lap. Certainly not when her client was in fact liable, but this time she had been handed an easy one.

Charles Bingley was not only the picture of innocence he was actually not in the wrong. He also just happened to be her older sister's boyfriend and a financial wizard. His boyish good looks and his winning smile had surely won over the predominantly female jury. Then there was the sheer fact that Mr. Bingley was always on the straight and narrow in his business dealings which didn't hurt either.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury," Elizabeth began as she stopped pacing and turned to face them. "The man you see before you has been accused of underhandedness and shady dealings. But the evidence we have presented to you today speaks of an honest, trusting man who is always careful when he signs a contract. You have seen for yourself what went on behind the scenes of this major deal and it is clear that Mr. Bingley upheld his side of the bargain." Elizabeth went on for some time waxing poetic about the importance of honoring contracts and the good, upstanding character of the Defendant. "So ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I ask you to look at this man," she pointed at Charles, "and make the decision that you know in your guts and your hearts is correct. Your honor," she nodded to the judge and returned to her seat.

"The jury is now dismissed to deliberate, bailiff?" The judge nodded to the uniformed man standing to the side of the bench and he moved to escort the jury out of the courtroom.

Elizabeth hated this part the most. No matter how carefully she had screened the jury, no matter how persuasive her evidence and her argument were, there was always a chance that a rogue existed. There was always a chance that someone in there was more persuasive than her. She hated the waiting. Normally, she would be sweating bullets at this point, but not this time. She glanced at Charlotte to see how she was taking it. Her face was clouded over and she looked ready to spit nails. She did not look afraid of hearing the verdict. She, like Elizabeth, knew what the verdict would be and she was pissed. Elizabeth knew she would hear about it later, but for now she simply enjoyed the pleasant sensation of winning that was starting to engulf her like a downy blanket fresh out of the dryer.

After a short twenty minutes the jury filed out of the meeting room and took their seats. The foreman handed a slip of paper to the bailiff who delivered it to the judge. The judge read it and then turned to the jury.

"What is your verdict?"

"Your honor the jury finds that Charles Bingley is not liable for any damages."

Elizabeth heard Charles make a slight celebratory noise under his breath and a look of relief flood his features. She smiled to herself, careful not to make a show of her victory in front of her best friend and opponent. She would celebrate later with Charles and Jane after dismissal.

"Let the record show that the Court finds for the Defendant on all counts. Court adjourned."

Elizabeth began packing up her stacks of papers while Charlie jumped to his feet.

"I'm going outside to call Jane," he said happily.

"I'll be out in a minute," Elizabeth replied. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Charlotte talking to her client about the appeals process. When her client had scurried from the room Elizabeth walked over to her longtime friend and said, "You really think you have a chance on appeal?" It wasn't said spitefully, just curiously.

"Of course not! We weren't top 10 of our class for nothing Lizzie. I have to say something to him now. Later, when he's rational, I'll lay out his chances."

"Of course," Elizabeth smiled. "You wouldn't be interested in coming out with us, would you?"

"No, I've got to get back and explain to the partners how that bitch Elizabeth Bennet just pulled the rug out from under me." Charlotte smiled wryly to show she didn't really mean it and the two of them left the court room together. When they reached the courthouse steps they found Charles on the phone and he quickly hung up when he saw them approach.

"Great job in there Charlotte," he was quick to say as he extended a hand to her.

"Thanks Charles. I knew someone as nice as you couldn't possibly be the con artist my client was trying to paint you as. But I have to do what the higher ups tell me to do."

"I understand. No hard feelings then?"

"Not at all. Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to the office. Congrats, Liz. Bye Charles."

"Bye Charlotte. All right then Ms. Lizzy let's get you to a bar to celebrate!"

"Absolutely."

"Jane is meeting us there and I hope you don't mind, but my sister and my best friend were really worried so I told them they could join us."

"Of course I don't mind! This is just as much your celebration as it is mine. Even more so."

"Great! I can't wait for you to meet Darcy, he'll be so excited to meet you. He's just finishing up his first year in law school."

"That's great! I can't wait to meet him."

When they got to the bar, Lizzy let Charles go inside while she made a quick phone report to her office. Her managing partner was pleased and gave his blessing on the celebration, giving her the afternoon off. With a lighter step she went into the bar and found her friends gathered around a table near the back.

"The conquering hero!" Charles called out to her. "Here let me introduce you. Lizzy this is my oldest friend Will Darcy, Will this is Elizabeth Bennet, the saver of my hide."

"Nice to meet you Will," Lizzy said as she held out her hand.

"And you Ms. Bennet," Will replied shaking her hand.

"Lizzy this is my twin sister Caroline," Charles said turning her attention to a female version of Charles only with harder features.

"A pleasure," Caroline Bingley said grasping her hand lightly in a weak sort of shake.

"I like the play on names. Charles and Caroline. Very cool," she said enthusiastically.

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked confused.

"The name Caroline is the female version of Charles. It's why we have North and South Carolina. They were..." her voice trailed off when she realized that Caroline was gaping at her with something akin to disgust, Will Darcy had a look of boredom on his face, and Charles was suppressing a smile. "Sorry. I go on sometimes. It's a habit."

Charles assured her it was fine just before Will engaged him exclusively in conversation and Caroline worked extra hard to be included. That was Lizzy's cue to talk to Jane.

"Janie!" she said as she embraced her favorite sister. "It's been ages since I saw you last. How have you been?"

Jane smiled and nodded. "I've been great since yesterday. Charles said you were excellent in court today."

"Charles made it very easy for me. It totally helps that he is the picture of innocence. Not to mention the fact that he _was_ innocent."

"Lizzy? What can I get you? It's on me," Charles interrupted.

"I'll take a Stella, but next round's on me. I might just make partner soon thanks to you my friend."

"I'll drink to that," he said as he went to the bar.

"So Will, I hear you've just finished your first year at law school. Got a summer internship lined up?"

"Not at the moment, no."

"Oh, that's too bad. Well, at least you should celebrate. First year is the hardest."

"That's what I hear," he said to his drink. Lizzy felt a distinct chill coming off of him and decided to turn back to her sister.

"How's the shop?"

"It's great. I just got a bunch of orders in for some very interesting cakes. You won't believe what one groom wants me to do." Lizzy loved hearing tales from her sister's cake shop. She owned a very high profile place that was infamous for its elaborate theme cakes. "He wants a scale model of the Millennium Falcon for his Bachelor party."

"That's awesome! Take a picture for me before they destroy it!"

"One Stella and one sprite with peach schnapps." Charles plopped the drinks down on the table.

"How can you drink that Jane? Too sweet!"

"Like her," Charles said kissing her neck. Jane giggled and sipped her drink.

"It tastes like...senior year, Lizzy."

"Ugh, I hated senior year." Lizzy stuck her tongue out at her sister and took a swig of her beer. "We didn't toast!" She raised her glass and the others imitated her. "Here's to Charles's good nature and straight dealing!"

"Here, here," Jane said laughing.

"Here's to Lizzy's smooth talking," Charles responded.

"I'll drink to that," Jane smiled. The five of them tipped their drinks before falling into a pensive silence.

"Aren't you awfully young to be made a partner, Lizzy?" Caroline said loudly.

"Well, young and old is a relative idea. Young perhaps compared to the senior partners, but..." her voice trailed off when she looked around and realized that once again she was blabbering. "Sure, Caroline. I guess you could say that."

"I think it's fabulous!" Charles chimed in.

"Charles, she's only making partner because she brought in a big name client. She made it rain and now she's being rewarded."

"Thank you for that perspective Will," Lizzy said wryly before taking a swig. "He's right though. I certainly made it rain today." She lifted her glass in Charles's direction.

"Lizzy, my reputation was on the line. I wouldn't have gone to you if you weren't one of the best contract litigators in the city."

Lizzy felt her cheeks flush red with the compliment and decided not to reply.

"Will, Lizzy here graduated top of her class. That firm of hers snatched her up almost immediately," Jane said smiling at her sister.

Will and Lizzy shared a look that seemed to go on forever before he finally broke it.

Later when they had had a few more drinks Lizzy and Jane watched Charles and Will whispering frantically as Caroline danced by the jukebox having had one too many glasses of wine.

"He likes you," Lizzy said as Jane and Charles shared another meaningful look.

"I think I might love him," she replied as color spread over her cheeks.

"Wow, that's pretty quick. It's only been a few months."

"I know, but love doesn't work on a schedule. It just hit me the other day."

"Well, if he makes you happy I wish you both all the best. I'm glad to see you in love again."

"I'm not sure I should tell him, though."

"Afraid the l-word will scare him away?"

"Yeah," Jane nodded sadly.

"Why don't you play this one by ear? See how it goes and if the time feels right, go for it."

"That's a good idea. I think I'll try it that way this time." Jane'd had her heart broken on a previous occasion and it made her wary of giving away the game too soon.

"He definitely likes you a lot. Anyone could tell that," Lizzy said sipping her drink.

"Speaking of boys, how's your love life doing?" Jane raised a perfect blond brow at her sister.

"Died on the table. I've been too busy 'making it rain'," she made air quotes around her words. "I need a new drink. BRB," she called to her sister.

Lizzy made her way to the boys to see if they needed a refill when the sound of their urgent talking made her stop. She wasn't in the habit of eavesdropping, but curiosity and several drinks overcame her.

"Go be with your angel, stop trying to torture me."

"I don't think asking you to engage in conversation with Jane's beautiful sister is torture!" Lizzy blushed to hear herself be complimented but then registered what was going on.

"Beautiful? Maybe, if she weren't wearing that hideous suit. Come on, you heard her earlier, she sounds boring! What was all that nonsense about your name?"

"Fine, if you want to sulk into your beer on your own I'll go keep my lovely girlfriend and her brilliant sister company. I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but it's not becoming."

"Go be with your angel. I'll be fine."

Lizzy, realizing that she was about to be discovered, walked up as if she had never stopped and said, brightly, "Another round boys?"

Charles smiled and Will looked away. "Sure, Lizzy. Will, why don't you help her get the drinks?"

Will glared at his best friend before hesitantly nodding and standing up to walk with her. They were silent as they stood at the bar aside from Lizzy ordering the round. He refused to make eye contact with her and she didn't force him to talk. His comment about her being boring still stung and she didn't want to give him any more ammunition for his criticisms. Boring? Boring! No one had ever called her boring before. At least not to her face. They made their way back to the table where Charles had joined Jane. He was whispering something into her ear that was making her smile. Lizzy looked at them fondly before glancing at Will to see his reaction.

He was constipated. At least he looked that way. Lizzy shrugged before setting the glasses down.

"So, Will," Lizzy began sipping her beer thoughtfully. "If you're interested, we had a summer intern back out at the last minute. I could arrange an interview with my partner if you want."

"Wow, that'd be great Lizzy!" Charles spoke up. "Wouldn't it Will?" he looked at his friend.

Will paused for a moment, considering her silently. "Sure, I would really appreciate that," he said with a faint smile.

"Here's my card," she handed him a small rectangle of cardboard. "Fax me your resume and I'll make sure that he gets it and we'll be in touch."

Will took the card and slipped it into his shirt pocket. "Thanks Ms. Bennet."

"Please, it's Lizzy," she said with a wry smile.

"Thanks Lizzy," he said sharing her smile.

Will finished his drink before bidding everyone goodbye. Caroline followed him out of the bar quickly, stumbling slightly at the threshold. Through the window they saw her grab his arm and walk to his car. Clearly she had gotten a ride home with him.

"Is he okay to drive?" Jane asked Charles.

"I think so. He wouldn't drive otherwise."

"I should get home as well," Lizzy said throwing back the last of her drink.

"Are you okay to drive?" Jane asked with a maternal tone in her voice.

"I am, but I left my car at the courthouse so I'll be calling a cab anyway. I'll pick it up in the morning," she said pulling out her phone and dialing information. Fifteen minutes later a yellow cab pulled up outside of the bar and Lizzy was on her way home.

Home was a condo in downtown Orlando that overlooked Lake Eola. This had been her first major purchase after having paid down a good deal of her student loans. It was fairly new, but she had spent the first two weeks of living there making it home. Each room had a signature color that was bright, without being obnoxious, and themed very slyly. Her own bedroom was a bright shade of blue with grayish undertones. Instead of using a border or traditional stripes she had found stencils of Kanji characters and used a shiny clear paint on them. You could only see the figures in the right light. The curtains were a shiny silk Oriental pattern with hints of the same blue on the wall in the roman style with white sheer curtains beneath. Her mattress rested on a black wooden platform and the dresser and chest of drawers matched. The only art hanging was a series of pictures in black frames hanging on the wall over her chest of drawers all complimenting the furniture and the shade of blue on the walls. Specifically there were several prints and cells of Walt Disney's famous _Sleeping Beauty_ wearing her blue dress which hung over a collection of trinkets all featuring the princess in her blue dress.

Lizzy Bennet had been fixated on that particular princess since she was a little girl and felt very strongly about the blue dress being the best version of that dress. Finding collectibles of Princess Aurora in that dress was difficult and she snapped up whatever she could find and displayed it with pride. Admittedly she had friends, like Charlotte, who were enablers of this habit and Jane who always knew what to get her for Christmas and birthdays.

Lizzy wandered into her bedroom and began to remove her suit. As she tossed the black skirt suit into the bag that would carry it to the dry cleaners she thought of Will Darcy. He had called it hideous. If only he knew how far from her personal style that suit was. She pulled on a white tank top and a pair of running shorts before moving into her en suite bathroom to remove her make up and take down her hair. When her face was clean and her red-gold locks free of their prison she pulled a ratty old Barry Law sweatshirt on and went into her lilac living room.

This room was her favorite as it tied the whole place together. The color wasn't true lilac, but a bit darker with the same gray undertones as the bedroom and in fact all of the other rooms. Her black and white checked couch was flush against a wall that held her feature piece. She had taken squares of wood and arranged them in a 3-D effect, each one was painted a different color and each color had been used in the various rooms around the house. There were the grayish-green from the guest room, the blue of her bedroom, the yellow of the bathroom, the deep pink of the kitchen, and black. The rest of the living room furniture was black and opposite the couch hung a large HD flat screen TV. Her second major purchase after the condo. She collapsed onto the most comfortable couch she had ever been on and then reached for the portable phone on the end table. After placing an order for delivery at the local Vietnamese restaurant, she flicked on the television and began scrolling through her recorded programs. She was well into a new episode of _Family Guy_ when her food arrived and she ate herself into a coma and awoke with a start at 1:00 am before dragging herself to bed to finish her night's sleep. But not before setting her iHome alarm clock so the dulcet sound of her iPod would wake her in time to get her car on the way to work.

Lizzy Bennet fell asleep knowing that she was a success, definitely not boring, and feeling vastly superior.


	2. Past Recollection Refreshed

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. Also, I'm a HUGE geek.

Will Darcy attempted to hide his fidgeting from the esteemed-looking man in front of him. The circumstances surrounding this ordeal were humiliating and as much as he hated to admit it, he was forever indebted to Elizabeth Bennet for pulling the strings to get him here. He had lined up a fantastic internship with a major firm in Baltimore near his original law school and his family home, but circumstances had changed and now he was going to a tiny school in Orlando of all places and was settling for an internship at a mid-level firm that was done as a favor!

Whenever these thoughts overcame him he thought of Georgie and instantly calmed. Charles had been somewhat of an influence as well, but he had loved the University of Maryland Law School and hated to leave the city he had grown up in. There wasn't a decent place to get blue crabs for miles and there were no trees! None! How was it possible for there not to be any trees? He had always marveled over Georgie's choice to attend the University of Central Florida, but he wanted her to be happy and was in the habit of indulging her when he could. Just because he had had to put his career goals on hold to take over the family business that didn't mean Georgie had to be denied her hopes and dreams. So he had packed her off to UCF last fall and started furthering his own education after five years of putting it on hold.

He didn't dislike Barry Law, it was a cozy atmosphere and everyone seemed to get along and know each other. He could do without the gossip and smack-talking that was rampant amongst the smaller groups, but knew enough about office politics to keep his trap shut when people started talking like that.

"Mr. Darcy, your work history is very impressive and you're in the top ten percent of your class, which makes you an ideal candidate. I value Ms. Bennet's opinion and you come highly recommended by her. I think if you're interested you have a place here at Gardiner and Klein."

"Thank you Mr. Gardiner. I'm extremely grateful and, of course, I'm interested in joining the team." He flashed the partner what he knew was his winning smile and the man returned it.

"Excellent. Can you start next Monday?" Mr. Gardiner was standing up and Will jumped to his feet.

"Of course," Will shook Mr. Gardiner's outstretched hand and followed him to the door.

"Before you leave, I'd like to show you around a bit."

Will followed Mr. Gardner around the office noting the location of the break room, the bathrooms, and the filing system before they stopped outside of a solid wooden door with a nameplate that read Elizabeth Bennet. Mr. Gardiner knocked and Will heard a voice shout enter before he opened the door.

"Ms. Bennet, do you have a minute?"

"Of course," she said with a bright smile. She was wearing a different suit today. It was a charcoal skirt suit with a shiny green blouse underneath. Her hair was down and he could see how long and shiny it was. The blouse made the color of her eyes pop and even beneath a set of black cat-eye framed glasses he could see them sparkle. She perched her glasses on top of her head and waved them to the seats in front of her desk. The two men entered and took the proffered seats.

Will couldn't help but notice that she had an amazing smile and didn't know why he hadn't see it before.

"Ms. Bennet, you know Mr. Darcy?"

"Of course," she said smiling again. Will tried very hard to keep his gaze from falling to the cleavage that she was sporting today. He forced himself to make eye contact with her.

"Thanks to your recommendation Mr. Darcy here is our new intern and I'd like him to work under you," he finished.

Her expression froze and it took a few moments too many before she responded. She did, however, manage to nod her head. Must have been a reflex. "Of course!" her enthusiasm was loud and forced.

"Excellent!" Mr. Gardiner rose and Will and Lizzy followed. "I'll leave you two here to chat, he starts Monday morning and not a moment sooner," he said wagging a finger at Lizzy. "If you wouldn't mind showing him out," he added before closing her office door behind him.

They both resumed their seats and avoided each other's gaze. Will's gaze finally landed on her diplomas.

"University of Maryland?" he looked at her shocked.

"For my undergrad. Barry for my law school."

"Did we go to Maryland at the same time?" he asked standing up to get a better look at the date on the certificate. "We did. I graduated the same day!"

"Small world," she said smiling wryly at him. "Are you at Barry too? Or FAMU?"

"Barry. I got a last minute transfer."

"Okay, well, um, we usually get started around here at 9:00 AM. It's going to be mostly grunt work unfortunately. We're expecting a windfall of documents on Monday morning and you get the honor of cataloguing it. Luckily, it's the digital age and a lot of it should be on a thumb drive."

"Thank you," he said sitting down again.

"For what? Grunt work?"

"For the internship."

"I recognize potential when I see it," she shrugged. "Here, I'll walk you out," she stood up and he opened the door for her before following her.

With her back to him as she walked, he was free to assess her figure to his heart's content. Her skirt was a modest length falling just below her knees, but what he could see was very nice. Her shiny red hair swung from side to side as she walked and he found himself longing to know what was going on under that gray suit. She stopped and turned towards him and he managed to get his eyes to hers just in time.

"I have to say I didn't expect you to follow through, but I'm glad you did."

"How could I look such a gift horse in the mouth?" he smiled and he watched her eyes slide down to his mouth for just a brief second. She licked her own lips unconsciously and quickly stuck her hand out towards him.

"I'll see you bright and early on Monday," she said to the floor.

He shook her hand before walking through the door. Where had that woman been when he first met her? He tried to remember that day in the bar, but he had been so preoccupied and really in need of a drink. Her hair had been pinned up in a neat bun, very severe, the suit had been black and modest, with a white blouse beneath. Her stockings had been black. She had been scary. Intimidating. Or was it him?

He drove back to Charles's house where he was currently renting a room. It was hard living in the same house as Caroline Bingley, but he much preferred to share a living space rather than living alone. He knew Georgie didn't want to share a space with him and anyway she was in a lease with some girls from school. Besides, Charles lived in a manse (not quite a mansion, too big to be a house) and there was plenty of room to get lost in if he needed to avoid Caroline. The house was also located in Baldwin Park, a very convenient distance from school.

He let himself in and wandered back into the living area to find Caroline reading a magazine on a chaise in the sun room. She looked up and smiled what he supposed she thought was a beguiling smile.

"How did it go?" she asked setting aside her copy of Vogue.

He was in it now so he sat down across from her and loosened his tie. "I got it. I start on Monday." He sighed heavily, but perhaps not for the reason Caroline assumed.

"It must be mortifying. Accepting the charity of that brash woman. If her sister wasn't the sweetest girl in the world I would tell Charlie to look elsewhere next time he lands himself into trouble."

"He didn't land himself into trouble," he sighed again. "I've got to tell Georgie how it went."

"We're going to Seito's when Charlie gets home," she called after him. "You're welcome to join us if you like. I think he's bringing Jane."

"Sounds good," he said as he rushed out of there. Most days he could handle her, but not today. Not with fresh images of Lizzy Bennet with those glasses on running rampant through his mind. He'd always had a thing for glasses.

Lizzy Bennet sighed as she climbed into the backseat of Charles's car. Jane had talked her into coming along to dinner with them and Charles had insisted. Together the two of them were unstoppable as far as Lizzy was concerned. They pulled up to a beautiful two-story house in Baldwin Park and Charles parked the car.

"I thought we were going to Seitos's," Lizzy said as she stared up at the house.

"We are," Charles said. "It's just down the street, so I thought we'd grab Darcy and Caroline and walk there."

"Ah," she said nodding her head as she followed her sister into the house. "You didn't say anything about this," she whispered to Jane urgently.

"I didn't think it'd be a big deal," Jane whispered back. They followed Charlie into the back of the house where Will and Caroline were sitting each reading their own periodical. Caroline had a copy of Vogue Paris, Will had the Financial Times open.

"Are you two ready?" Charles asked.

"Yup," Will said setting aside his paper and looking up at Charles. He caught sight of Jane and Lizzy standing just beyond him and smiled. She was still wearing the same suit only the jacket had come off and he could see the outline of her figure better.

"I didn't know Lizzy was coming, too," Caroline said accusingly to her brother.

"She was visiting with Jane, it would've been rude not to invite her."

"I can go if it's a problem," Lizzy said.

"Of course you can't," Charles laughed. "I drove."

"Right."

"Well, we'd better go. We have a reservation." Jane, ever the peacemaker, spoke up to change the subject.

The walk was not very long, but to this awkward group it felt like forever. Jane and Charles seemed to make a point of walking slowly behind everyone else while Caroline fought to walk by Will and Will fought to walk near Lizzy, each hoping to engage the other in some sort of conversation. Both of them failed miserably. Will was disappointed not to be able to talk to her, but was sated by the fact that once again he could enjoy the view as she walked ahead of them. How she managed to walk so quickly in those heels, he would never know.

When they had finally arrived at the restaurant they were shown to a table and thus the time-honored dance of sitting down began. Charles sat at one end of the table with Jane at his right and Caroline sat opposite him at the other end. Lizzy was quicker than Will and grabbed the seat across from Jane leaving Will to sit on either side of Caroline. He chose the lesser of two evils, to Lizzy's utter surprise, and sat between her and Caroline. As long as he had to be near Caroline, at least he could be near Lizzy as well.

It had, at some point, during the afternoon occurred to him that she was his superior and that any sort of affair was highly unprofessional. However, that didn't mean a red-blooded man couldn't look. He just wouldn't touch.

Lizzy stiffened as he sat next to her and threw Jane a surprised look. Jane shrugged and leaned closer to Charles to see what he was ordering.

The life-saving task of reading the menu took up several blessed minutes as the silence became justified and less likely to swallow them whole. But once orders had been worked out and the sushi order form filled out, they looked at each other stupidly with no one knowing how to start conversation. Charles cleared his throat in a delightfully obvious way before saying "How 'bout dem O's?"

Suddenly, they all burst into laughter and the tension was broken. They naturally broke into two different conversations as Caroline engaged Will in a conversation he didn't particularly know anything about and Lizzy got drawn into a conversation with Charles and Jane about business. Because Will didn't know anything about Caroline's subject, she was able to prattle on heedless of his inattention and he could listen in on the conversation he was interested in. Turns out Lizzy and Jane knew a thing or two about business and they were having a very interesting debate about incorporating Jane's bakery.

"Well, Carolina Herrera should sue!" Caroline was saying emphatically as Will's attention was brought back to her train of thought.

"She can't," he said haphazardly. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Lizzy was paying attention now.

"And why is that?" Lizzy asked with a wry smile. She knew why, but never turned down an opportunity to argue a point of law. She especially loved doing it with students.

"Copyright laws and patent laws don't allow it."

"But isn't a dress design as much intellectual property as a song or a book?" she probed.

"Well, yes, but the fashion industry evolves and changes too rapidly for the copyright industry to keep up. Patents can take years and by the time it's researched it's gone out of style!"

"But don't you think people who create knockoffs should be punished?" Caroline asked, unknowingly stealing Lizzy's next question.

"Yes, Will, aren't they rewarding bad behavior?" she added with a smile.

"No, because the fashion industry has several unspoken rules and they have trademarks."

"Like what?" Jane asked, drawn into the conversation now.

"Logos. The marks that people like Caroline look for when they're shopping. There are people who know labels and only shop for certain labels and so the knockoffs have the unique quality of elevating the brands it's copied as well as making the designs more accessible to the masses."

"Oh," Caroline said at a loss. Lizzy smiled at him and he felt his face flush.

"First year Property," Lizzy stated for her half of the table. "Great class."

Dinner was somewhat more relaxed as it progressed, but that may have been helped along by the various beers and rice wines being imbibed. Lizzy was drinking a particularly colorful drink out of a big cone-shaped glass and could feel her head getting fuzzy. At one point Lizzy excused herself and when she came back, Will could swear she had removed her pantyhose. Once the bill was paid, the group got up and began the even longer walk home. This time Lizzy stepped out of her ridiculously high heels and walked home barefooted.

"That's not very safe," Will observed as she swung her shoes along like a kid.

"Thanks, _Dad_," she said as she stuck her tongue out at him. She was a bit drunk.

"Well, you shouldn't walk barefoot."

"Too late, shoes can't go back on now," she said to her shoes.

"She'll be fine, Will. The sidewalks are clean," Caroline said waving her hand at Lizzy. Will looked at the ground and begged to differ.

"Come here," he said as they stopped walking. He turned away from her and crouched down a bit.

"What?" she asked staring at his back and what she realized was a very nice butt.

"Hop on," he said impatiently.

"Uh uh."

"Go on! You can't walk in bare feet. This is the best solution."

She looked at Jane who was giggling a bit drunkenly and Charles who was laughing at his friend's posture and shrugged before hopping onto his back. Will carried her piggy back style the rest of the way home.

"This is highly unprofessional Mr. Darcy," she said in a mock serious tone.

"Indeed Ms. Bennet. Perhaps we won't mention this on Monday morning."

"Perhaps, indeed!" she agreed.

Once they had returned to Charles's house it was decided that no one was in any shape to drive anywhere and so Lizzy was assigned a guest room while Charles led Jane to his room. Lizzy was standing in her underwear washing the makeup off of her face in the en suite bathroom when there was a knock on the door of her bedroom. Thinking it was Jane she grabbed a towel to dry her face off and opened the door. It took approximately 2.5 seconds for her to realize that it was Will Darcy, her _intern_, standing on the other side of the threshold and an extra 1.5 seconds to cover her body with the towel she was holding.

Will tried his best to avert his gaze, but his prayer from earlier today having been answered he did his best to get a good look before she noticed. He had been sent by Charles to give her something to sleep in and didn't think she would answer her door in...nothing. Well, the underwear might as well have been nothing for all the coverage it gave her. Will's suspicions were confirmed. She was hot.

Lizzy cleared her throat. "Yes?"

"I, uh, have something for you to sleep in. Charles sent it down."

"I thought you were Jane, by the way," she said as she grabbed the clothes out of Will's hand.

"Yeah, I get that all the time," he laughed. She shot him a death look and then abruptly slammed her door in his face. "Hey," he said knocking as he laughed. "I'm sorry!"

The door swung open and Lizzy was wearing Charles shorts which hung off of her narrow frame and his undershirt which showed off almost as much as her bra had, if that was possible. Will actually began to feel some discomfort.

"Apology accepted. Was that it?"

"Yeah, also, do you have any pets or anything at home?"

"No, why?" she asked tilting her head to one side.

"It's started raining pretty badly and the news is reporting a tropical storm warning. I just thought you should know."

"Okay, thanks," she said. He was still standing there.

Staring.

At her.

"Is that all?" she asked.

"Yeah, sorry. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." She said shutting the door again. Suddenly she wasn't tired.

Will stood outside of her room for just a few more seconds committing the image to his memory before making his way back to his room. His dreams would be good ones tonight. It was the thunder that woke him at around 4 AM. He had been in the middle of a very nice dream when the crashing had ruined things. He realized the power was off and checked his watch before lying back in bed. The thunder was loud and coming on very quickly and he could no longer get back to sleep. Getting up he wandered out to the kitchen for a glass of something soothing.

When he walked into the kitchen he saw Lizzy sitting at the wooden island with her iPhone and a mug of something. The lightning through the wall of windows behind her illuminated her and he had to spur himself to keep walking. She was too tempting by half.

He nodded to her quickly when she looked up at him, he assumed she couldn't hear him because she had earbuds in her ears, but he saw that she had boiled some water on the gas stove and moved to make his own cup of tea. He took a seat across from her as he let his tea steep and realized that she was terrified.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She looked at him and pulled an earbud out. "I'm sorry?"

"Are you okay?" he repeated.

"No, I don't like storms."

"Oh. Me neither," he said as he played with his teabag. She nodded and took a sip of her tea as silence, interrupted by thunder, surrounded them.

Lizzy never knew what to say around him. She couldn't shake the idea that she was boring to him and now when she wanted to say something she had to bite it back and censor it to see if it could be called boring, which infuriated her! She had never cared what people thought of her before, why did it matter now? She knew it shouldn't, but he was so damned handsome she couldn't help but feel slighted by the comment. She had wanted him to like her, but she realized that wouldn't happen. He thought she was boring. He never had two words to say around her and he couldn't seem to make eye contact. It was obvious he would rather be anywhere than with her. It didn't help that he wasn't wearing a shirt, just a pair of plaid pajama bottoms. She simply could not lust after her intern! It was such a cliché.

"What was your undergraduate major?" she blurted out.

He looked taken aback by the weird change of subject, but answered nonetheless. "I was pre-law poli sci."

"Really? No wonder I never saw you."

"How about you?"

"Pre-law English." She replied before sipping her tea.

"We weren't so far apart on campus. It's not like you were in the agricultural buildings."

"True. Though, I might as well have been. Susquehanna was not a prominently placed building."

"I guess we ran in different circles," he commented.

"Yup." She was dying of curiosity to know what had taken him so long to get to law school, but didn't want to pry and knew better than to ask that kind of thing. Years of investigative research had taught her something. He was holding back for a reason and would not be more forthcoming at this stage of their relationship.

"Where is everyone else?" Lizzy asked looking around.

"Well, I figured Jane and Charles have each other to comfort, and Caroline takes sleeping pills. She's out for at least 10 hours."

"What does Caroline do, by the way?"

"She lives off of her inheritance, leeches off of Charles a bit, and is a hanger-on to the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan."

"What's she doing here then?"

"Usually after Spring Fashion Week she's lived beyond her means and has to live off of Charles exclusively. She'll get her allowance in July and be back in New York before you can say Prada."

Lizzy laughed a bit too loudly and it bounced off of the ceramic tiles and glass windows. "Oh, I didn't mean to do that." She smiled at him. "She gets an allowance from her trust fund?"

"Her father knew her very well," Will smiled.

Lizzy nodded and they fell into a more comfortable silence than before as they sipped their tea.

The storm didn't seem so bad anymore. For either of them.


	3. Discovery Phase

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. Also, I'm a HUGE geek.

The next morning dawned gray and rainy. The tropical storm warning had been upgraded and they were now bracing themselves for a hurricane and it was due to come ashore in a day or two. Lizzy and Will had adjourned to the living room when the power had come back on and stationed themselves in front of Charles's massive TV to watch the news reports. Eventually they fell asleep.

Will awoke suddenly and realized that he and Lizzy had shifted into an awkward position on the couch. Somehow they had ended up spooning. He looked around bleary-eyed and found Charles and Jane standing over them with looks of shock and not a little humor. He disentangled himself from Lizzy's limbs and led them into the kitchen where Jane immediately set about making pancakes.

"Spill it," Charles said once the kitchen door had swung shut. He couldn't wait any longer.

"I woke up from the storm around 4 in the morning and came out here to get some water. She was up, too, and we sat up talking. Eventually, the power came back on and we went in there to watch TV. We fell asleep on opposite sides of the couch; I don't know how we ended up like that."

"Hmm," Charles sounded doubtful.

"Hand to God I did not intend to spoon Elizabeth Bennet," Will said defensively.

"Methinks thou dost protest too much," Jane said from her station at the stove where she was pouring the batter for blueberry pancakes.

"Anyway, you should know the tropical storm warning was upgraded to a hurricane watch. We're expecting a Cat 2 to make landfall in the next day or so."

"Have they closed the roadways yet?"

"Not yet," he said.

"Maybe you and Lizzy should get some stuff and come hunker down with us," Charles said to Jane as she flipped pancakes.

"That's a good idea. I wouldn't want to put you out though," she frowned in concentration at the griddle.

"Not at all. The more the merrier, right Will?"

"Of course," Will said staring out of the windows. "Should we do something to board up the windows?"

"Yeah, I've got storm shutters. So Jane and Lizzy will go get their things and you and I will put up the storm shutters. Caroline will probably sleep through the whole thing."

"That's a great plan, babe. But first let's eat," Jane carried a plate full of golden pancakes to the table and Will couldn't help but stare in wonder at how quickly she had whipped them up.

"I smell pancakes," Lizzy said as she wandered into the kitchen rubbing her eyes.

"Eat up, Lizzy. We're going to get our stuff after breakfast and then come back and hunker down."

"Hunker down. Great phrase." Lizzy chuckled to herself as she poured syrup on her pancakes. "Wait," she stopped pouring and looked up at them all. "Hunker down? As in, hurricane's a-coming?"

"Yup," Charles replied before shoveling a huge bite of pancakes into his mouth.

"I could just ride it out at my place. No need to hunker down here," she said as she dug in.

"Oh you can't Lizzy! I'd be so worried the whole time. Plus the wind might damage your building. I'd feel better if you were here with us. Charles has storm shutters."

Lizzy looked at the pout on her angelic sister's face and relented. "Fine, we'll hunker down here."

"Good, we'll stop on the way back and get whatever supplies we can from the store."

"Good idea. Lots of bottled water and batteries and whatnot," Charles said through a full mouth.

Will couldn't help but smile as his friend sprayed pancake bits everywhere.

Lizzy caught that smile and realized that he had dimples. She had never seen him really smile before. She ate her breakfast quietly and tried not to watch him. Despite her previous misgivings she realized after spending the wee hours of the morning with him that she was in serious danger of liking him. If only he weren't such a douche bag. That was her one consolation. Every time she felt herself heat up under his gaze she thought about what he had said the first time they met and it cooled her off pretty quickly.

They stopped at Lizzy's condo first and she packed some clothes for the weekend and her laptop and briefcase. Next they went by Jane's apartment where Jane also packed and Lizzy retrieved a few things out of her car which was parked outside of Jane's house. Finally ready for the weekend, they stopped at the nearest Publix and scoured the store for whatever was left. Bottled water was almost gone, but they grabbed as much as they could. There were no batteries left on the shelves, but managed to find some hidden away on an endcap. They also stocked up on canned goods and other non-perishables that Jane could whip into delicious dishes on the gas stove which would work no matter what the power situation was. It was rare to find a gas stove in Florida, but Charlie preferred it to electric so he had gotten one immediately upon moving into his house.

When they got back to Charlie's place the beautiful windows in the kitchen had been covered by steel shutters and the rest of the house had been similarly shut up. It felt a little like prison to Lizzy, specifically because she was being sequestered with Will, but mostly because she loved her condo and really wished she hadn't let Jane push her into staying here. Lizzy had set up her laptop and set to charging her spare batteries while they had power. She was going through her brief case looking for the appellate brief she was working on and Will sat down at the table with his own laptop.

"How many spare batteries do you have?" Will asked looking at her setup.

"Two backups. How many do you have?" Lizzy asked still rifling through her bag.

"None."

"Okay, well, I've got work to do this weekend and I can't take any chances. If we lose power I have to keep on working."

"What are you working on?" he asked. Just then Caroline wandered into the kitchen looking as though she had just come from a salon and looked around her in wonder.

"What in the world is happening?"

"Hurricane's coming," Will said avoiding looking at her. "We've put up the storm shutters and Lizzy and Jane are staying the weekend."

"You're joking!" Caroline said.

"Not at all," Lizzy said drily. "It's supposed to make landfall sometime early Monday morning and they've predicted a Cat 2 storm." Lizzy's phone rang and she answered it walking towards the sun room as she talked. "Hello? Oh, hi Mr. Gardiner. Of course I'm ready for the storm."

Her voice trailed off and Caroline gave Will an exasperated glare.

"You can't be serious? Eliza Bennett in this house all weekend?"

"Charlie requested it. He wanted Jane nearby and Jane wanted Lizzy nearby. Feel free to take it up with Charlie."

"Well of course _you_ didn't ask for this torture, Will. Though it might be an interesting exercise in finding out about your new colleague."

"New boss," he corrected.

"Boss? As in..."

"Yes, I'm his boss." Lizzy was walking back into the room flipping her phone shut. "Will, the office is closed on Monday, but I'm going spend some time briefing you on the case you're assigned to. That way when we're back on Tuesday you can get straight to those documents."

"Great, thanks."

Caroline was speechless. She kept looking from Lizzy to Will and back again.

"Did I break her?" Lizzy asked looking at Will.

"She'll be okay. I think Charlie and Jane are in the TV room if you want to talk to him."

"Um, right. Thanks," she muttered as she left the kitchen.

Lizzy watched the dazed blonde stomp out of the kitchen. She then turned her gaze to Will's dimpled smirk.

"Caroline and I are going to be best friends," she said with sarcasm dripping from her words.

"What kind of case am I on?" He asked indicating her computer.

"You don't have to do anything until Monday, Will. Don't worry about it."

"No, I'm really interested!" he insisted.

"Okay, well, I've brought in a client whose suing the mouse."

"You're kidding," Will said joining her on the other side of the table. "They've got a terrifying legal team."

"Even worse, it's a copyright infringement action, which means their most terrifying legal team is up against us." She smiled.

"You don't seem terrified," he said skeptical.

"I'm not, because I've done the leg work. All the research I've done to this point speaks overwhelmingly of infringement and that's what you'll be doing in the Discovery phase. I'll need you to go through the documents they send us and compare them to our documents. I'm going to have you drafting interrogatories and writing questions for the depos. If you'd really like to start I have all of our clients stuff on my thumb drive so that you know what you're looking for when we get their stuff."

"Sure, absolutely," he said as he grabbed the thumb drive she was holding out to him and got to work.

Pretty soon the kitchen table atmosphere became alarmingly serious. The others would drift in and out of the kitchen hoping to make conversation and being completely intimidated by the silent and studious work ethic witnessed there.

It was Jane who finally took charge at lunch time and made them stop when she sat sandwiches down in front of them. All five members of the household sat down to eat, but Will and Lizzy wolfed down their food so that they could get back to work.

"Has she always been like this?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah, at least since she started law school."

"I've got a new client and I have to make sure they have a case before Will drafts the complaint," Lizzy said finally removing her gaze from the computer screen.

"Another one?" Will asked peeved as he looked up from his work.

"How would a law firm survive if we helped one client at a time?"

Will sighed and shrugged, "It wouldn't," he went back to his own work. Lizzy did the same and eventually the others drifted out again. Around four in the afternoon they lost power which made Caroline stir crazy and all she could do was pace the kitchen and watch the two of them work.

"Will, you read so fast!" she commented as he moved on to the next document.

"Actually, Caroline, I read rather slowly."

"I think I'd die if I had to read so many boring documents," she said dramatically.

"Then don't go to law school," he replied shortly.

"Eliza, take a break and walk around with me. It must be hard on you to sit slumped in that chair all day."

Lizzy looked up at her and saw only a ridiculous smile pasted on her face. It did not go unnoticed by Caroline when Will watched Lizzy stand, shut her computer, and walk towards her. Caroline grabbed Lizzy's arm and made sure they were parading in Will's line of sight so that he might better compare their figures and judge whose beauty was superior.

Will, being the man he is, couldn't resist. Especially since Lizzy was wearing a tiny pair of ratty old running shorts that looked like they might fall apart any second. And her glasses. She was wearing her glasses.

Caroline saw and wasn't sure whether to be triumphant or feel idiotic. So she did the only thing she could do. She tried to bring Lizzy down a peg.

"Will, do you want to join us?"

"No, not really. Your purpose is much better served by my sitting here."

"Purpose? Eliza what could he mean?"

Lizzy ground her teeth every time Caroline called her Eliza. "I don't know, CAROL, why don't you ask him?"

"Will, what do you mean?"

Will smirked at Lizzy, knowing how uncomfortable she was. "Only that you must have one of two reasons for walking around like that. Either you're having a super secret girls-only chat, with which I want nothing to do, or you're hoping to show off your figures and I can hardly watch your figures if I'm walking with you."

"You bad man!" Caroline nearly shouted with glee. "Eliza, can you believe that? How can we punish that bad man?"

"By ignoring him," Lizzy said looking at the self-satisfied smirk on his face. "Laugh at him, tease him, if you must, but ignoring him is the best punishment."

"Laugh at Will Darcy? You can't be serious."

"Is there nothing funny about him? Are there no faults?" She looked at the quiet, serious paragon that was Will Darcy. "No, I guess not."

"I have faults," he said almost sounding like a petulant child.

"Yeah?" Lizzy quirked an eyebrow at him.

"My favor, once lost, can never be gotten again."

"Wow. Knows how to hold a grudge. Interesting." She stopped walking as she and Will shared a dangerously intimate moment until Caroline spoke up.

"He only holds a grudge where it's absolutely deserved."

"Thanks Carol, for the walk. I do feel much better," Lizzy yanked her arm out of Caroline's grasp and sat back down at the table.

Caroline feeling very much like things had gone horribly wrong said something about finding Charles and wandered off. But the atmosphere in the kitchen had changed. It nearly crackled with electricity now and Will was having trouble concentrating on work. Luckily, he finished reading the documents she had given him and could put his laptop away. Lizzy decided that dinner was a good time to stop and she changed out batteries to charge the other spare.

Dinner was a much more talkative affair with Will and Lizzy in their own world discussing the case he was working on. The others couldn't seem to pick up on the topic and decided to stay out of it. After dinner Charlie brought out the board games and they decided to play Apples to Apples. Caroline pleaded a headache and went to bed. Jane dealt the first hand, which made her the judge.

"The word is 'Beautiful'." She laid down a green colored card with the word Beautiful written on it.

Charles was the first one to lay down a card and Will and Lizzy quickly followed. Jane gathered the cards and read them out.

"My hair," she giggled, "a Sunrise," she nodded, "Babies," she sighed. "This is a tough one."

Lizzy nearly rolled her eyes, but was impressed by how well Charlie knew her.

"Babies," she said finally holding it up. It was Charlie's and she handed him the green card while Lizzy grabbed the red pile to deal.

After Apples to Apples they moved on to Monopoly. Jane quickly went bankrupt and sat with Charlie to cheer him on. Will and Charlie, two business men, took the game fairly seriously, but it was Lizzy, the strategist, who ultimately won. When both the men looked at her questioningly she shrugged.

"It's a board game."

Jane and Charlie wandered off to bed after the games had been cleaned up and Lizzy sat on a barstool finishing her herbal tea and listening to the storm. Will looked at her and remembered last night. She was terrified of storms. Not of fierce legal teams of major corporations. Storms.

"You want some company?" he asked.

Lizzy quirked a brow at him skeptically and shook her head no. "You go to bed. I'll be fine."

"Lizzy, did I —" but he stopped himself. "Goodnight."

"Wait, Will, did you what?"

"Well, it's just I remember being a bit preoccupied by a bad situation when I met you. I wondered if you had been offended by my distant behavior?"

"No, not really, everyone has bad days, I can see that now."

"Then why are...I mean, why have you been so..." he couldn't seem to find the right word. "Why don't you have two words to throw me when we're not discussing work?"

"I wouldn't want to bore you," she said before standing up and leaving the kitchen. She had hit the light switch and left Will standing in the dark with his thoughts when it finally struck him. She had overheard his conversation with Charles.

"Damn."

**author's note: This is the last chapter I had pre-written before posting, but I'm about halfway through the next. Thanks to all of my reviewers and readers for your support and please be patient if my next updates don't come as regularly. I'm supposed to be writing a huge paper for school over the break, so I'll sneak in some fan fic when I can. Happy Holidays everyone!


	4. Interrogatories

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. Also, I'm a HUGE geek.

Lizzy lay in the guest bed and stared at the ceiling marveling at what she had just said to Will. Not only that she had said it, but that she really had been upset about his words since having met him the previous week. She wondered about his reaction and vowed to maintain a professional demeanor with him at all times in the future. The longer she thought about it, however, the more she longed to know how he felt about her. Where was it written that they couldn't have a romantic relationship if they wanted to? They were both consenting adults, they were the same age and he wasn't a client. Indeed, the more she thought about it, the more she began to warm to the idea. If only he returned her feelings.

Lizzy tried to banish all thoughts of Will Darcy from her mind and began the unwinding technique she learned decades ago to help her sleep. First she relaxed the muscles in her feet and then her legs and so forth and so on until she felt as light as air and all thoughts of illicit affairs with interns were banished from her mind. As she drifted into a happy, relaxed sleep she had no idea of the torment Will was under as he lay in his own bed just a few doors down.

_She overheard us_, he thought to himself for the hundredth time. He wondered if anyone had ever told her she was boring before. He congratulated himself silently for bringing her down a peg, because dammit she could be condescending sometimes. Then he thought _pot calling the kettle black_ and he thought about the fact that she wasn't in the least bit boring, especially to him who understood her law-speak, and wasn't it a shame that she would never have a normal conversation with him again because he had stupidly mentioned in passing that she was boring.

She was the least boring person he knew. Even the thing about Charles and Caroline's names was pretty damn interesting. In the past few days he had sat and listened to her talking to her sister while he tried to focus on work and wondered how the hell she knew so many insignificant little pieces of history and trivia. As the seconds on his clock ticked by, these and many other similar thoughts tumbled through his brain while he attempted to sleep. He wondered what he might say to get a second chance. Was there any way to change her perception of him? Because he couldn't stop thinking about her eyes. And her hair. And that body. And that brain.

He thought about those things until 4 in the morning before he drifted off and dreamt about them.

In the morning, the hurricane was nearly upon them. With the storm shutters closed there was no telling what the conditions were, but Will could hear the noise of the wind and rain pummeling the shutters as he lay in bed. He got up and walked out to find Lizzy sitting in the entertainment room in front of the TV with her laptop propped in her lap. "Where are Charles and Jane?" he asked as a big yawn escaped his mouth. He hadn't yet got dressed and he saw her double take as he stretched languorously in the doorway.

If he had been closer to her, he might have seen her pupils dilate at the sight of him. He walked over and sat down next to her. She had the weather channel on and was typing furiously on her computer.

"Don't you ever rest?" he asked curiously.

"Ask me that question when you're dealing with billable hours," she chuckled.

"Of course," he said sitting back and looking at the TV.

"The worst of it should be on us by tomorrow. I'm hoping to get enough work done before then in case we lose power." As she said that, the lights flickered off and the TV screen went black. Her computer beeped angrily to let her know that she was running on the battery and she swore softly under her breath.

Will looked around wondering what to do with himself. He glanced at his boss tapping away at her computer and remembered that his battery was still good.

When Charlie and Jane came downstairs they found the two of them in a much different position on the couch than the day before. Lizzy and Will were sitting side by side with their computers on their laps and the only glow in the room was coming from their screens.

"Power's out," Will said without looking up at them.

"I'll make breakfast," Jane said. This caught Will's attention and he wondered if that was Jane's answer to every awkward situation. Cook something. Charlie followed her into the kitchen and Will went back to his computer.

Hours later Will's battery had died and Lizzy was working on her second back-up battery. She hadn't eaten a thing all day, Will noticed, and he wondered at her stamina. They had all gathered in the kitchen to conserve candles and Will had found some paper and a pen and was scribbling on it. Lizzy saw the low battery sign flash on her screen again and decided she'd better finish before she lost her work. After saving her stuff and shutting the machine down she looked at Jane and asked, "Anything to eat?"

"We saved you some chili from lunch," Jane said pointing at the stove top.

"Perfect!" Lizzy jumped up and found a bowl and began ladling the chili out.

"William," Caroline said suddenly, "what are you writing?"

"I'm writing to Georgiana," he said without stopping.

"Why are you doing it on paper?" Caroline said with a hint of disgust.

"I had something to tell her and I didn't want to wait until the power came back on. I'll type it up and email it later."

"Who is Georgiana?" Lizzy asked between large bites of chili.

Caroline wrinkled her noise at Lizzy's eating habits and said "His little sister." Then she turned back to Will. "Tell her I said hi! Ask her if she wants to go to the Islands with me this summer and what she thought of that Project Runway finale!"

"Why don't you email her these pressing questions later? I'm just getting down some thoughts before I forget."

"Has she gotten any taller?" Caroline asked wistfully. Lizzy watched a vein tick over Will's right eye and looked at Caroline who was staring at the distance like the worst actress in the world.

"She's almost 19," Will growled, "she's fully grown. Though she has apparently gained her freshman 15."

"Oh no!" Caroline exclaimed. "The poor thing! Well, my trainer at LA Fitness is the best if she wants to use him. I hope she's okay!"

"She weighed about 100 lbs. wet before, Caroline, I don't think 15 lbs. is the end of the world.

"I suppose," Caroline agreed begrudgingly. "Tell her I said hi, anyway."

"I already did."

"Good." She sat silently for a moment thinking of how she could interrupt him when Lizzy stood up and she noticed that Will's eyes followed her as she placed her dirty dish in the dishwasher. "Lizzy," she suddenly burst out, "won't you play cards with us?" Caroline, Jane, and Charles had been playing a game of rummy.

"No thanks, I think I'm going to take a nap now that the noise of the storm has calmed down."

"Is this wretched storm over finally?" Caroline whined.

"Actually, I think this might be the eye of the storm on us. It's usually calmer than the rest. When the storm starts to move out of the area the tail end is going to be the worst."

Caroline made an incomprehensible sound and Will looked at her in rapt attention. She locked eyes with Will and smiled. He returned it and went back to his letter. She went back to her room.

Lizzy wasn't accustomed sitting still for long. She was used to sitting her desk for long periods of time, but this was sheer torture. Her hands had nothing to do! Usually on the weekends she went jogging around Lake Eola, had lunch in Thornton Park, and had dinner with friends. The weekends weren't about resting, physically, they were about resting mentally.

So lying here in bed in the middle of the day with nothing to do and nowhere to go was absolutely awful. Lizzy shut her eyes in an attempt to nap, but sleep would not come. Her mind was racing with thoughts and ideas about the numerous cases she was currently in the middle of. She might end up using old-fashioned legal pads to keep all of these ideas straight. But in the meantime she needed to release some of this nervous energy she'd built up for the past few days. She pulled on a pair of running shorts and a t-shirt and went back to the kitchen.

"I need to run," she announced to the room.

"There's a treadmill in my room," Charlie said standing up. "It's currently acting as a clothes horse, but I'll clean it off for you. Do you mind being in the dark?"

"You guys can spare one candle, can't you?"

"Absolutely," Charlie said grabbing a new candle and the matches.

"Will, I need your help," she said as she stood up. "Find something to write on and come join me. I need to get some stuff down on paper while I remember it. Would you mind?"

"Not at all," Will said, all too happy to get away from Caroline Bingley for a while. He ran off to Charlie's office in search of a legal pad, before heading upstairs to Charlie's bedroom. Lizzy was just warming up while Charlie was putting his clothes in the closet. Will sat down in an armchair near the treadmill and got poised to write.

For the next hour Lizzy spouted off ideas for seven different cases in no particular order and it was up to Will to make sure he kept things straight and got it all down. He was amazed, not only by the sheer amount of information she was keeping straight, but that she was able to talk at the speed she was running. When she finally slowed down, Will's hand was beginning to cramp, but Lizzy looked relaxed.

"Are you finally done?" Caroline said as she entered the room in her own skimpy exercise outfit.

"Yeah, just cooling down," Lizzy said panting a little bit.

"Great, I'd like to get my own workout in," Caroline said as Will stood up. "Oh, I was hoping you'd keep me company too, Will."

"I wasn't keeping her company, Caroline, I was working," he said as he walked out of the room. Lizzy stepped off of the treadmill and smiled ruefully for Caroline before following him. "By the way, Caroline, the water isn't really safe to bathe in right now. I'm going to have do a quick sponge bath with spring water now. I just thought you might like to know that.

She could hear Caroline groan as she shut the door behind her. Lizzy wasn't too pleased with the situation herself, but was desperate for the workout and decided to go ahead anyway.

The rain and wind came back with a vengeance later that night and into the next morning, all the while the power remained off. Thanks to Jane's culinary skills and Charlie's gas stove they didn't starve, but Lizzy was uncomfortable after the workout without a shower and bored to tears without her computer. One could only play card games for so long.

At long last, the storm moved on and all that was left was a light drizzle. Lizzy sighed with relief that she would be able to move back into her own home (hopefully she still had a home to move into). She and Jane piled into Charlie's car and he drove them to their homes. Lizzy rode the elevator up to her condo and was relieved to see that everything was as it should be. She knew better than to shower just yet and instead she turned on the TV and promptly fell asleep on the couch. It hadn't been so much a physically exhausting few days, but being forced to spend time in close quarters with Will and Caroline had been a real test of her sanity.

Will felt the loss of Lizzy keenly. Her wit and intelligence had really added something to the atmosphere of the house and now that she was gone he had nothing better to do than listen to Caroline bad mouth her.

"She ran for an hour when she knew she wouldn't be able to bathe! Can you believe it? When she told me, well, I simply couldn't work up such a sweat knowing I wouldn't be able to shower!"

Will said nothing.

"And all of that work! It's no wonder she needs those hideous glasses with all of the peering she has to do at that little laptop of hers."

Will wondered if Caroline could hear him grinding his teeth.

"She's such a show off! Just because you know things does not mean you have to let people know about it! I know many things, but do you see me lecturing everyone night and day."

"What do you know about?" he asked sharply.

Caroline froze and looked at him nervously. "I know plenty of things," she harrumphed before giving up and heading to her bedroom.

He was just glad to go in to work the next day.

The office was chaos the next morning as the power outage had felled the network and the digital files were inaccessible. When Will arrived he found Lizzy sitting in one of the chairs in front of her desk. When he looked at her desk he saw someone he hoped never to see again.

"Good morning," he said tersely to Lizzy.

"Morning," she bit back, equally as terse.

"Something wrong?" he asked ignoring the man behind the desk momentarily.

"Nothing. Only my mother. She lives 800 miles away, but she still has the ability to drive me nuts."

"Oh, that's too bad." Will couldn't empathize. He'd love to have his mother alive and bugging him again.

"Its fine, she just called to force me to take out her best friend's son with the hopes that we'll fall madly in love and I'll finally settle down and give her grandchildren."

"That's not so bad. One duty date won't kill you," he said consoling her.

"You haven't met the guy. It won't kill me, but I might kill him."

"All right," the man behind the desk said with a sense of finality. "You're up and running." The man behind the desk gave Lizzy his most charming smile and Will noticed that she blushed becomingly and then the man turned and saw him and his gaze quickly turned from warm admiration to cold steel. Will gave as good as he got and stared the man down with a ferocity that was making Lizzy feel uncomfortable.

"Will, let me show you to your office." Lizzy stood up a little too quickly and teetered on her heels for a bit.

Will steadied her and followed her down the hall to a room with three computers crammed into it and two other people tapping away at their computers furiously.

"Here's your computer. George has already started a profile for you, there's your login and temporary password on the screen there. Go ahead and personalize it or whatever and I'll be right back with the thumb drive of documents for you." She left without another word and Will sat down.

"Hey," said the girl at the desk next to him. "I'm Mary, that's John, we're the other interns."

"I'm Will," he said nodding to the other two before getting into his account on the computer. He looked up at Mary and found she had already gone back to her work.

Back in Lizzy's office, she was surprised to see George still sitting at her desk.

"Oh, hey George. Did you need me for something?"

"Oh! No, I was just a bit shell shocked to see _him _here. You must have noticed the cold silence."

"Sure, I saw something weird was going on. Do you two know each other?"

"Yeah, actually, my dad worked for his dad back in Maryland. We spent a lot of time together as kids."

"Really? What happened to make you so cold to each other?"

"His dad liked me better. When my dad passed away, Mr. Darcy offered to put me all the way through law school, but when he died Will refused to follow through on his wishes."

"Was his father a lawyer?"

"No, he was the CEO of a company that owned restaurant chains."

"Still, that kind of person is surrounded by attorneys, why didn't he put it into writing, get it enforced?"

"I don't think he had time. He passed away very suddenly."

"Hmm, but surely Will isn't so cold-hearted as to not follow his own father's wishes."

"He's pretty jealous. I think he hated me for the favor his dad always showed me."

"He doesn't seem like the type."

"How long have you known him?"

"Oh, not long. A week or so."

"Well, give it time. You'll see the dark side sooner or later."

"Okay, well, I'd better get our friend his work. Thanks for your help George."

"No problem. Call if you need anything."

"Sure," she said before seeing him out of her office and down the hall in the opposite direction. She suddenly had a lot to think about it.

With the 1 inch thumb drive clutched in her hand she headed back to Will's office to see if she could gather any info from him about the situation.

Will was busy reading through the policy manual that had been left on his desk and looked up at her when she entered.

"Here you go," she said as she held her hand out to him. He took the drive and immediately plugged it into his computer.

"Great, thanks." He said as he clicked it open.

"You remember what you looked at over the weekend?"

"Yes."

"Great, well, these are the allegedly infringing documents and supporting documents. I need to you to catalogue them and bring anything interesting to my attention."

"Can do."

She stood there for a moment wondering if she should bring it up, but he was already diving into his project with determination etched across his face. Clearly his work ethic was impeccable.

"Anything else?" he asked looking up at her.

"Um, yes, actually. Here's the password to my documents, I need to you to print the Shiavo file and throw together a trial notebook. We're going to court tomorrow morning."

"We?" he asked looking at her.

"Yes, you're coming with me. If you have any questions let me know. We'll be meeting at the courthouse tomorrow at 8:00 AM sharp."

"No problem," he said as he clicked away on his computer. She nodded to no one and backed out of the intern office shutting the door quietly behind her.

She brushed the new info she had received to the back of her mind for another time and got herself back into work mode. The only thing she cared to worry about was how she was going survive a date with the wretched Bill Collins.

**Author's Note** thanks to everyone who reviewed, alerted, and favorited! This one's a bit longer than normal and next time…a date with Mr. Collins! Oh the suspense! Also, the program hates my section breaks, so I apologize if it feels like it goes on forever.


	5. Court Date

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. My page breaks weren't working so I've bolded new sections. This one isn't heavy on dialogue, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

**Lizzy Bennet** was rarely nervous. She never worried about a future outcome. Lizzy possessed the type of analytical mind that could usually predict the outcome of any situation and was able to plan accordingly.

But not this time.

This time she had no idea how to prepare, how it would end, how to handle the eventual ending. While most people had been terrified by the Bar exam, she had been excited. While others got nervous flutters before dates, she looked forward to them with a confidence that few possessed.

Except this time.

Her mother hadn't known this, but Lizzy remembered Bill Collins from college. He had been in several of her English Lit classes and had gone on to get his Masters and PhD in Literature. He was now a professor of English Literature at a small private college on the eastern shore of Maryland.

Strictly speaking she wasn't nervous that the date would go badly. She was nervous that he might think it went well. She knew a few of the people who had dated him during college and knew that he would read meaning into the most meaningless signs and fancy himself in love. He was a wild card and if there was one thing Lizzy Bennet hated, it was a wild card. She went out of her way to prepare her clients so they would not be wild cards. But there was no way to prepare for this. If she was witty and charming, he might consider it an invitation. If she was standoffish and cool, he might think she was playing hard to get.

This was a man who didn't understand that not every woman was desperate for a man. Any man. She had reached the ripe old age of 26 without acquiring a husband and if Bill Collins was half as sexist as she remembered him being, he might think she was desperate. And she wasn't. At least not that desperate.

No. Not desperate at all.

Busy. She was busy. Trying to make partner didn't leave many hours in the day to socialize and when she did get out, her mind was so full of work that she had trouble making small talk. Generally, she ended up talking shop (not enough shop to violate the attorney/client privilege) with another lawyer and ended the night with a one-night stand or alone, either was fine with her. She wasn't a cold-hearted person, though. She did occasionally, when she had the time to think about it, crave the stability of a relationship. She longed to have someone to go home to at night. Someone she could talk about her day with who would understand the stress and the pressure and who could reassure her that she was going to be okay.

Life got hard sometimes. It was made even harder when she realized exactly how alone she was. Bill Collins, however, was not the answer. Bill Collins would never be the answer. She already knew that for sure.

Lizzy had been pacing the floor when she heard her doorbell ring. She walked quickly to the door and threw it open allowing Jane and Charlie to enter before scurrying back to her bedroom which was covered in clothes.

"Hi Lizzy," Charlie said to her back.

She waved a hand at him and said, "hey Charlie. Thanks for coming by."

Jane followed her into the bedroom while Charlie made himself comfortable in the living room. Girl problems usually took a while so he turned on the TV and found CNBC.

"I've never seen you so nervous Lizzy!" Jane exclaimed as she entered her sister's usually neat bedroom.

"I need an outfit that's nice, but not too inviting. Help me!"

Jane smirked at her before rummaging through the piles of clothes. "If it weren't nearly June, I'd say a turtleneck is the way to go." She continued to rummage and Lizzy pulled on a robe and went out to the kitchen.

"What's the deal with this date?" Charlie asked as she pulled a couple of shot glasses out of the cupboard and a bottle of tequila from her liquor cabinet.

"It's a duty date for my mother with a guy who thinks all women want him. Want a shot?"

"Sure," Charlie said as he joined her at the kitchen bar.

She poured out two shots, they toasted silently, and then knocked back their shots in one gulp.

"That sucks," he said once they had swallowed. "I bet Will would let you use him as an excuse."

"An excuse for what?" Lizzy asked downing her second shot.

"Tell this duty guy that you're seeing someone, but you haven't told your mother."

"I don't think I could do that. I'm not sure Will would approve."

"If there's someone who knows about duty, it's Will."

"No, I'll get out of this without lying." She did one more shot and then put the glasses in the sink and the tequila away.

"Lizzy!" Jane called from the bedroom.

"Coming!" Lizzy called back. Her smile was a bit tipsy but she was still walking a straight line as she left.

"Here you go," Jane gestured to the outfit laid out on the bed. There was a plain white blouse with a black skirt that fell mid-calf. Next to it was a colorful scarf and a pair of gold hoop earrings. "Modest, plain, the scarf adds some color and makes sure he can't see down your blouse, and the earrings just because. You should pull your hair back, but not a severe bun."

"Thank you Janey, it's perfect!" She hugged her sister and quickly got dressed. As she was tugging on her modest heels she heard the doorbell ring. She could hear Charlie greeting Bill in a serious tone and it made her smile. Jane had found a good one.

Jane slipped in the room and gave Lizzy a final look and an approving nod. Lizzy followed Jane out of the room and saw Bill standing awkwardly in the foyer with Charlie.

"Elizabeth! You haven't changed a bit!" Bill said in tones that felt false and a bit smarmy.

"Bill, this is my sister Jane and you've met her boyfriend Charles."

"Yes," he said awkwardly.

"Oookay, well we'd better be off." Lizzy hugged Jane quickly and then she followed Bill out of her apartment.

**Bill Collins **remembered her as a scrawny little thing that was always running around campus in sweaty old clothes and always piping up in class with ludicrous ideas about literature. When he'd told his mother that he was going to an educators' conference in Orlando, FL, she had called Mrs. Bennet who had arranged to have Elizabeth show him around town. Bill had been hesitant, especially when he learned that she was a lawyer of all things.

But he respected Mrs. Bennet as a close friend of his mother and agreed to the outing for her sake. Apparently her second daughter was a spinster and Mrs. Bennet was afraid that she might never have grandkids. Bill didn't think the outing would come to that, but he decided not to rule it out until he had met the woman. She might be one of those soft-hearted children's lawyers or something. He could handle that kind of woman.

As he rode the elevator to her condo he sneered in distaste at the décor of her building and the sheer fact that she lived in a _condo_. His patroness, Catherine de Bourgh, who was the provost of his university, had always said that a condo was a waste of money. He had to agree with her, of course, and if Elizabeth Bennet was any kind of lawyer then she knew what a waste of money condos were. This was something he needed to find out tonight.

When he knocked on her door he had not expected the extremely well-dressed man with the flaming red hair to answer the door. He had made small talk with the man who seemed to be acting like some kind of big brother. When she came out he thought she had grown up well. Her figure had filled out and she was very pretty. She was, of course, nothing to her sister Jane, but seeing as Jane had made this remarkable catch named Charles, he could make do with the very pretty younger sister.

As they rode the elevator down to the garage he asked about the type of law she practiced and what her success rate was. As Lizzy drove to the restaurant he told her about his job at St. Mary's and the kindness of the provost there in hiring him and helping him find his house, etc. As they waited for their table to be ready he shared the provost's view on houses vs. condos and asked her if she knew why it was wrong for her to have invested in a condo.

As they perused the menu he told her that the food at the restaurant she had chosen couldn't possibly compare to the haute cuisine provided at meals by his provost's chef. While they sipped their drinks waiting for their food to arrive he recalled (with frightening accuracy) several things that Lizzy had said in the lit. classes they had shared in college and why they were wrong. He asked her questions, but did not wait for her answer. He made declarations of opinion as though they were fact. And all the while, Lizzy had not uttered a word beyond "yes, but" and "no, but."

She had worried over his impression of her for hours before his actual arrival, but he made it clear that he disapproved of her career, her housing choice, her restaurant choice, and her opinion of certain literary classics. She was pretty sure at this point that he would not fancy himself in love with her and did not waste another brain cell on the matter.

Which was why it was quite a shock when he tried to kiss her on her doorstep at the end of the night. She dodged him deftly enough.

"I'm sorry, but you seem to have the wrong idea about me."

"Oh, of course! I'm sorry, but perhaps we should get to know each other better?"

"Um…how long did you say you were in town?"

"The conference is a week long, so there will ample time for us to get to know each other. My provost, Catherine de Bourgh, has suggested that I find a wife because it does not do to attend faculty events without one."

"Do you always do as Catherine suggests?"

"Yes, she is extremely intelligent and magnanimous and I would be remiss if I did not follow her instruction carefully."

Lizzy stared at him wryly, counting up the $.75 words he had used in the one sentence. This had become a running joke in her own mind and for the entire evening she had counted a total of $25.75. He liked big words. Hell, she liked big words, too, but didn't actually feel the need to use them so often.

"Okay, well, I've got to get to bed; I've got court in the morning. I'm not sure it would be a good idea for us to see each other again. It was…uh, fun…catching up. Bye then!"

And she squeezed herself through her door and slammed it in his face.

**Will Darcy **parked his car with the rest of the civilians who were arriving for their day in court. He walked to the front of the court house and found Lizzy waiting for him already. It was 7:55. She looked similar to how she had the first day he had met her. The difference between her court attire and her office attire was stark and he realized that it was on purpose. He had sorely misjudged her based on her appearance and his own bad-temper that day.

She motioned for him to follow her through the attorney's security line and they were quickly allowed through. The court room was on the 20th floor and the elevator moved so fast he thought he might lose his breakfast. As they approached the courtroom, Lizzy greeted a man in a suit and they sat down on a bench outside of the courtroom to discuss the case. Will wasn't sure if he should join them, but he knew that to be of any help to the case he'd have to know what was going on, so he stood within earshot.

They were up first that morning and he marveled at how Lizzy handled the judge, opposing council, and the witnesses. It was a bench trial, so no jury was involved and Will watched her move through the proceedings with confidence and ease and wondered if he would ever feel as confident speaking in front of a judge. At the end of the trial, the judge found for Lizzy's client and all counts were dismissed. Will had known throughout the trial that she would win. He watched the judge as she handled her witnesses and the judge himself. He watched it dawn on opposing counsel when he realized he would lose.

She was a good lawyer. No, she was a great lawyer. He'd seen it with his own eyes. Not only did he like and admire her, but suddenly he felt himself aspiring to be like her. To have the calm and cool reasoning of Lizzy Bennet in the face of an old judge like Judge Anderson. She objected and responded to objections quickly and clearly and her voice held just the right amount of emotion to make her sound like she really cared, though he knew she really did care.

He had a hundred questions to ask her. And yet…all morning, from the moment they met outside until the moment the judge ruled, she had not spoken one word to him. She had hardly made eye contact. The only thing he could think of was that she had been alone in her office with George Wickham. Any amount of time alone with George Wickham was enough time to drag his name through the mud. He hoped, rather than knew, that she had the good sense not to believe a word that Wickham said, because she did not know Wickham the way he did.

They did, however, stop at a Panera Café for lunch before returning to the office and he thought it might be awkward to sit and eat in total silence. She also knew it would be insufferably rude to do that.

"What'd you think of that trial?"

"The witnesses were a bit boring," he began.

"Always happens in a bench trial about a contract issue."

"But you were amazing. How did you learn to do that?"

"Well, they have a class at Barry that teaches trial advocacy, which I took, but mostly I learned it on trial team."

"I need to try out for that."

"Absolutely. It's great. I was also on Law Review which looks great on a resume, but the practical stuff was an amazing help in real life."

"Thank you for bringing me with you today."

"You're my intern. It's what I'm supposed to do. We'll spend the afternoon prepping for depositions in that IP case. Those will be scheduled over the next few weeks."

"Sounds great. I'm looking forward to it."

"You have an astounding work ethic. I've been trying to figure you out ever since we met, but I'm afraid I'm having trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"You insult me behind my back, but then you accept my offer of assistance with this job. You have such great work ethic, but you would treat a childhood friend…" her voice trailed off as she got lost in her thoughts.

"I wouldn't necessarily believe everything I hear, if I were you."

"I take all information I receive with a grain of salt," she retorted.

They fell silent as each absorbed what they had learned.

Will cleared his throat a bit conspicuously and promptly changed the subject.

"Tell me about your duty date."

"Oh Jesus, what a nightmare!" She regaled him with tales of the worst date she had ever been on before turning to him with a strange look in her eyes. "Would you do me a favor?"

"What's that?" he asked leaning forward.

"It turns out that Bill is in town for the whole week and feels that we should get to know each other. I already gave his name to the front desk at my building so he's basically got a free pass to come to my place if he wants to. I need you to be my beard. So to speak."

"You want me to come over to your place and hang out to deter the man who wants to get to know you better?"

"Yes! That's it."

"Sure, I guess I can do that."

"Great. I promise I won't make you work while you're there."

"You may find this shocking, but I actually enjoy work. It's like my therapy, you know? I can sort of work out my frustrations through working hard."

She didn't reply, just nodded and looked at him thoughtfully. Another piece to add to the puzzle that was Will Darcy.

**Bill Collins **showed up at 8:00 pm sharp and the door to Elizabeth's apartment was opened by a tall, muscular man with dark hair and hard look on his face. A look he recognized all too well.

"Have we met before?" Bill asked in lieu of a greeting.

"I don't believe so." Will replied.

"You seem familiar. Did you go to Maryland also?"

"Yes, I did. I was a poli-sci major. You?"

"English, like Elizabeth. Do you mind if I come in?"

"Yes, actually. I heard you tried to kiss her?"

"Well, that is what women expect at the end of a date," Bill blustered.

"You didn't think it was a date, did you? She went out with you because her mother asked her."

"That doesn't matter."

"It does to me."

"And who are you exactly?"

"I'm her boyfriend," he practically growled at the insolent little man standing in the doorway.

"Where is Elizabeth? I need to speak to her."

"She's taking a bath," Will said haughtily, "she had a long day in court."

"Fine, I'll be back another time then. Perhaps a time when _you_ won't be here."

"Good luck. I practically live here," he said as the other man walked back to the elevator.

Will shut the door and turned to find Lizzy peeking at him from around the corner of the living room.

"You were perfect!" she said with a huge grin.

"I don't know if it actually worked. I may have to come back tomorrow, just in case."

"I would be really grateful if you did. If I had to hear one more word about the Great Catherine de Bourgh I might have shot myself."

"Wait, Catherine de Bourgh?"

"Yeah, she's the provost of his university. His patroness he calls her."

"He teaches at St. Mary's?"

"How did you know that?" Lizzy asked confused.

Will sighed wondering if he had just made a huge mistake by telling Bill they were dating. "She's my aunt on my mother's side."

"No!" Lizzy exclaimed. "Do you think he'll…well, of course he will, he takes orders from her, he'll probably tell her everything about his trip."

"At the very least we have a week before the shit hits the fan," Darcy sighed.

"She doesn't want her nephew dating a lawyer?"

"No, she's had a girl picked out for me since I was 5 years old. I can never convince her that it isn't going to happen, though."

"That's awful. My mother keeps flinging awful men at me, but she's never attempted to arrange a marriage."

"Do you have anything to drink?" Will asked looking at her wearily.

"Of course I do, come in, come in."

He followed her to the kitchen where she produced a bottle of tequila.

**Lizzy Bennet** rarely found herself in this position. She was lying in bed with a man and had no recollection of how they had ended up there. She remembered attempting to help Will forget his problems with his aunt with tequila, but after that it was pretty hazy. Had she asked him to sleep in her bed? She was wearing all of her clothes still, so they probably hadn't done anything they might later regret, but even so. The mere fact that they were snuggling was a bad sign.

She wiggled out of his grasp and went into the bathroom to shower and dress for work. Her alarm would wake him and hopefully he would head home to do the same thing. As she stood in the warm flow of water trying to remember what had happened she realized that they had made out. She gasped and ran the events of the night before through her mind remembering that he had gotten to second base before he stopped. She had wanted more and he had refrained. That was never a good sign. How embarrassing to first be rejected then to have to face him at work. She wanted to melt in the water and slide down the shower drain, never to be heard from again.

Will woke to the sound of the shower and looked at the clock. He would have to hurry home to get changed and ready for work on time, but he had wanted to talk to Lizzy about what had happened last night. He wanted to explain that rejecting her had been the hardest thing he'd ever done, but that he hadn't wanted to ruin their work relationship or the friendship he felt they were developing. Oh how he had wanted to continue, but that stellar work ethic she always spoke of got the better of him and he couldn't continue, at least not while they worked so closely together.

He pondered the benefit of waiting versus the necessity of leaving. He would see her at work, perhaps he could explain himself then. It wasn't an ideal situation and the sooner he said something, the better, but he really didn't want to be late. It was the one thing he hated above all. So he reluctantly got out of her bed and left her condo. They would have all evening tonight to discuss what had happened. Or better yet, what hadn't happened.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, but I had a 30-page paper to write for school and then the holidays took over. I hope everyone had a good holiday season. Happy New Year to you all! Also, there may very well be a Judge Anderson in the 9th circuit court of Florida, but I don't know if there is and my judge is not based on anyone.


	6. A Continuance

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. My page breaks weren't working so I've bolded new sections.

**The awkwardness began by the front desk**. Lizzy was headed back to her office with her first cup of coffee and Will bustled in looking harassed and a bit angry. She raised an eyebrow at him as they walked down the same hall and said, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," he said gruffly. "I hate being late."

"It's not that big of a deal. I do to, but unless we have to be at court a few minutes isn't hurting anyone," she tried to reassure him.

"It hurts me," he said shortly. "Anyway, can I speak to you privately before we get to work?"

"Um, sure. I've got a client meeting in about 5, which you need to be at, but after that we can talk."

"Great," he said before he rushed to the intern's office to drop his stuff off. Lizzy was waiting outside of her office for him when he came by and they headed out to the lobby to meet the client.

After a 30 minute meeting in which Lizzy interrogated the potential client and Will took notes, they were free to sit down and talk in private. They were quiet for a moment, neither of them knowing exactly what to say or where to start.

Will cleared his throat and said, "About last night–"

Lizzy held her hand up to silence him. "Don't worry about it. It should never have happened. Our relationship should be strictly professional and you were right to…well, to stop it."

"But–" Will tried to explain himself.

"But what?" Lizzy asked sharply.

"I didn't want to," he said quietly.

"You didn't want to? At all?" she asked equally as quiet.

"No," he shook his head quickly. "I didn't want to stop."

"Oh," Lizzy said as she felt a blush creep over her cheeks. "But you did."

"Of course I did. You're right. You're my boss and, hopefully, you're my friend, and I didn't want to ruin that."

Lizzy looked at him with that appraising gaze he had come to recognize. "You're right. It was unprofessional of me and it won't happen again."

She turned to the notes on her desk and handed the legal pad to him.

"Could you enter these into an intake form for me?"

"Yeah, I'll get it to you right away."

"Thanks, Will." With that one word, thanks, he heard her gratitude for doing what he thought was the right thing.

Will left her office and Lizzy sat for a moment lost in her own thoughts. How long was this internship going to last? How long would she be his "boss"? The attraction between them was undeniable and she knew it was going to be difficult to maintain a professional demeanor. Especially when her sister and his best friend were practically attached at the hip.

Thoughts of Jane crept into her mind and she dialed the number of her sister's bakery.

"Sweet Treats by Jane, this is Jane speaking how can I help you?" Her sister's voice chimed through the phone as sweetly as the cakes she baked.

"Hey Janie, how's it going?" Lizzy asked tucking the phone between her shoulder and her ear so she could organize her desk with her hands.

"Great! You'll never guess what happened last night. Charlie decided to hold a massive party for his company and clients and I'm going to co-host with him!" Jane was practically squealing into the phone and Lizzy felt her smile grow.

"That's wonderful Jane! That's a really huge deal!"

"I'm also making the desserts for the event. It'll be major advertising for my business."

"Absolutely, that sounds great! When's the big event?"

"It's only a few weeks from now at the end of July. I can't wait!"

"I bet. Oh, I have to go," Lizzy said as Will appeared in her doorway, "Congrats sweetie. I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks Lizzy. Call me after work."

"Will do, bye."

Lizzy hung up the phone and beckoned Will into the office.

"I forgot to mention that Charlie wanted me to personally invite you to his party."

"Aw, thanks. That was nice of him."

"Here's the file on that new client." Will handed her a brown file with a name and client number label on it.

"Great. I need you to research the matter for me and come back here at eleven to strategize. Sound good?"

"Yeah, no problem."

**Lizzy opened the door to Jane and Charlie at eight that evening.** And Will apparently. Lizzy had invited Jane and Charlie over for dinner, something she rarely did, but did right. She hadn't mentioned Will, but perhaps Charlie had insisted he come. When they came in Charlie handed her a bottle of wine and Will whispered in her ear, "Sorry to intrude, but Charlie did me a solid to get me away from Caroline."

"Of course," she said, "Don't worry, I made plenty."

"What's for dinner?" Jane asked from the living room.

"I made spaghetti and meatballs."

"Oooh, Lizzy makes the best meatballs!" Jane exclaimed.

"Let's open this, shall we?" Lizzy asked heading into the kitchen to get the bottle opener and some wine glasses.

"Here let me help," Will said grabbing two glasses and following her back to the living room.

There were snacks arranged on the coffee table and Will had to admit that he really enjoyed spending time in Lizzy's stylishly minimalist condo. The simplicity of her decorating spoke volumes about her own personality and he felt calmed by the soothing color palette she had chosen. It sounded weird when he thought about it, but he felt better admitting it to himself.

"Here's to a wildly successful party," Lizzy raised her glass and the others joined her in the toast.

"So, let's get down to business," Lizzy said. "Where do you want to hold it?"

"I've been thinking about the Netherfield Ballroom. I think they have the capacity that we're looking for," He said sipping his drink.

"That's a great location! We had a Law Review Banquet there one year. It's beautiful."

They drank their wine and nibbled appetizers while they planned out the party until the timer in the kitchen dinged and Lizzy announced dinner.

**Will** knew she was an amazing lawyer and a nice person, but he had no idea she would also be a great cook. When he had heard Spaghetti and Meatballs he had assumed she was phoning dinner in, but the meatballs were deliciously spiced and seasoned and the spaghetti was cooked to perfection. There was also homemade garlic bread and a salad that actually made him go back for seconds and he hated salad.

Sometimes he felt that she was too good to be true, which put him in constant fear of the other shoe dropping. He noticed that she liked to flirt with George whenever he was in the office and wondered if there was a way to convey to her exactly how big a jerk he was without actually giving her details.

"What do you think, Will?" Charlie said.

"Um…about what?" he asked not having heard the question.

"About having Houlihan's cater the party."

"Oh, yeah, their food's good."

"Where were you just now?" Charlie asked as he cut into a meatball.

"Just thinking about Georgie."

"How is Georgie?" Charlie asked through a mouthful of food.

"She's fine. We're having dinner this weekend."

"Who's Georgie?" Lizzy asked in a voice he recognized as tense and attempting to remain light.

He smiled at the idea that she might be jealous and replied, "My kid sister. Well, I guess she's not technically a kid anymore, but she is to me."

"I know the feeling," Lizzy said. "Our baby sister Lydia is 17 now, but she'll always be a baby to us."

"Georgie goes to UCF," Charlie stated.

"Is that why you moved down here?" Jane asked.

"Sort of," Will said vaguely without elaborating.

"Lydia wants to go there, but Mom wants to keep her up in Maryland for college," Lizzy stated sensing a change of subject was needed.

"I think it'd be nice to have Lydia down here," Jane said sweetly.

"Are you kidding? We'd never see her except when she has laundry or needs money and Mom would be on our case all the time to take care of her."

"It wouldn't be so bad," Jane said placating.

"Well, luckily it isn't going to happen, so no worries. She's a senior next year and Mom has her applying only to local schools."

"Actually," Jane said slowly drawing it out.

"Actually what?" Lizzy asked nervously.

"They're coming down next week to tour UCF."

"They?" Lizzy asked with wide eyes. Will could almost feel the dread she was feeling with just that one word.

"Mom and Lydia," Jane elaborated and Lizzy sat quietly with her fork poised mid-air over her plate. "Lizzy?"

"Are you okay?" Will asked her. She didn't answer either of them. Instead she stood up and found the bottle of tequila in the kitchen before going to her room and slamming the door.

"What's wrong with her?" Charlie asked with wide eyes.

"Um…she and our dad get on really well, but when he and our mom divorced he re-married on the other side of the country so she doesn't get to see him very often. She doesn't get along with mom at all and Lydia takes after our mother. They both have a tendency to drive her nuts."

Will looked at the closed bedroom door and wondered was it really so bad that she had to lock herself in with a bottle of tequila.

Almost reading his mind Jane said, "Mom has a way of making Lizzy feel like a four year old when she's around. I think it's because Lizzy takes after dad so much that Mom feels the need to pick on her."

"That's awful," Charlie said.

Will excused himself and walked to the closed door and knocked.

**Lizzy** heard the knock and pulled her duvet over her head. "Go away!" she shouted in a muffled voice.

"Can I come in Lizzy?" It was Will's voice and she looked at the door curiously. She had been sure it would be Jane who followed her.

"Come in," she called to the door. "It's open."

She pulled the covers up to her chin then to her nose until she was peering at him from behind the blanket.

"Apparently your mother doesn't need to make you feel like a four year old, you're acting that way all by yourself."

"What do you know?" she asked bitterly.

"I know that my father had very high expectations of me and my mother always wanted me to cut my hair and I would pay a million dollars to have them back and nagging at me again."

Lizzy watched the way he avoided her gaze as his hands fidgeted.

"I'm sorry Will."

"Don't be sorry. Just treasure what you have while you have it."

"Okay. I'll leave the tequila for later, but I reserve the right to drink while they're here."

"It's a deal. Now come back to dinner." He held out his hand and she took it so he could pull her out of bed.

When they returned to the table Jane was looking at Lizzy curiously. Lizzy had never had a chance to tell her sister about the night of the near miss.

For her part, Lizzy could only give her sister a wan smile before taking a big gulp of her wine which instantly made her cough. Will gently clapped his hand against her back and rubbed soothing circles until her coughing subsided and when she looked up she found Jane giving her a very strange look. Jane looked back and forth between Lizzy and Will before shaking her head and returning her attention to Charlie.

Later, after Will and Charlie had driven home, Jane interrogated Lizzy about her interaction with Will.

"I thought you didn't like him," Jane said curiously.

"I don't not like him," Lizzy hesitated. How much dared she give away?

"So…you like him?"

"He's a very nice guy and a hard worker."

"Aw, that's so sweet. He had you at hard work." Jane teased her before poking her in the side which always elicited a jerking reaction.

"He was very nice about helping out with Bill, who's still in town apparently." Lizzy was drying a pot with a frown on her face. "What if they're in town at the same time?"

"Who? Bill and Mom?" Jane asked.

"No Bill and the Pope! Yes Bill and Mom."

"I hadn't thought of that. I'll be with you every step of the way."

"You will not! You're in love and boyfriends always trump sisters."

"No they don't!" Jane said swiping at Lizzy with a dish towel. "Charlie will understand."

"Have you dropped the L word yet?" Lizzy asked as they put away the last of the cookware.

"No, there were a few times when I've wanted to, but then I've chickened out."

"Aw, it's okay. I'm sure he knows deep down how you feel. He's definitely smitten."

"You think so?" Jane asked her face clouding over with doubt.

"Absolutely, anyone watching you two together would think it was true love. You have nothing to fear."

"**I'm in love," **Charlie said to Will as he navigated the car home.

"Have you told her yet?" Will asked trying to hide the smirk from his face. This was certainly not the first time he had heard this from Charlie and he wasn't sure it would be the last. Jane was a sweet girl who was beautiful, but there didn't seem to be much depth to her, not like her sister who spoke volumes with her eyes and betrayed new depths every day.

"No, I'm waiting for the right moment. I was thinking the Ball."

"Ah, the old public declaration of love. Never fails, does it?" Will chuckled.

"Tell me what's going on with you and Lizzy, then." Charlie ordered diverting the conversation.

"Nothing," Will said quickly.

"That's not what I saw tonight. You ran to her rescue when she was upset. You took care of her when she choked on her wine. If I didn't know better, I'd think you liked Lizzy."

"Of course I like her, but we're just friends and colleagues." Will knew he sounded too defensive, but he couldn't seem to help himself. "She's my _boss_."

"So, are you saying that if you didn't work for her you'd hit that?"

Will's silence spoke volumes.

"I knew it!" Charlie laughed.

"Fine, fine, shut the hell up already. And how long have you said 'hit that'?"

"Never, but the moment seemed to call for it," he shrugged.

"I had a chance last night when I was keeping her company against that Bill guy."

Charlie pulled to a stop outside of their house and turned to him. "And?"

"I couldn't do it. I knew it would be awkward. As long as she's my boss I have to keep it professional."

"I know. Look, you won't be working for her forever, so don't burn any bridges."

"Thanks for the advice, Dr. Love."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Charlie asked in surprise.

"You think Jane is the first girl you've ever fallen in love with? I've heard your speech about love at least two dozen times."

"But Jane is the real thing! She's an angel! I've never met – ˮ

"Anyone like her." Will finished for him. "Yup, heard that one before too."

"What are you trying to say?" Charlie asked sharply.

"I'm saying you've been burned before and perhaps you should take your time with Jane and make sure she returns your feelings before you make a move. Start by declaring your love in private."

"I suppose you're right," Charlie agreed reluctantly. "I'll think about what you said."

**Lizzy and Jane **stood near the security exit waiting for their mother and sister to arrive.

"Feel free to crash at my place whenever you need to get away from them," Lizzy said squeezing Jane's hand.

"You know I don't have a problem with her," Jane admonished.

"Yes, well, I must be projecting my feelings onto you."

Lizzy saw their mother's overly coiffed hair bobbing through the crowd and squeezed Jane's hand.

"They're here," Lizzy said in a quiet and ominous tone.

**Author's Note*** I know, I know, shorter than usually and after such a long delay, but I wanted to get this out as soon as possible and once my final exam is over with I'll have much more time to write in the evenings. Please allow me to apologize for the extremely long delay in getting this to you. I've had a very rough and busy semester and I simply have not had the time to do anything outside of school and work. Your comments asking for an update helped to light a fire under me when I was finally at liberty to write, so hopefully this will tide you over for a week or so. If you're still reading this thank you, thank you, thank you. Comments, feedback, and critiques are always welcome and encouraged.


	7. Surprise Witness and a Confession

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. My page breaks weren't working so I've bolded new sections.

**Elizabeth knew** they wouldn't be in Orlando forever, but after a few days with her mother it certainly felt like forever. Mrs. Bennet had a way of treating her middle child that made onlookers cringe and she mentioned "your father" with such disdain that one might think it was entirely Lizzy's fault that the man even existed, let alone left his family and moved across the country. It got to the point where she was inventing work for herself so she wouldn't have to spend time with her family.

This did not go unnoticed by Will who walked past her office at 5:00 PM and saw her going over things that they had already done that day. After two nights of seeing this he finally decided to say something.

"Were those not what you wanted?" he asked.

"No they're fine. They're perfect," she said in frustration as she tossed them in her out box.

"Sorry I did what you wanted," he said smiling. She smiled pitifully at him and sighed as she started to organize the items on her desk. "How much longer are they in town?"

"Another two days, they – ˮ Lizzy stopped talking abruptly and cocked her head.

At first Will didn't understand and then he heard them. High pitched and demanding they bustled past the receptionist and Will saw them coming like a flock of birds of paradise. He wasn't sure if he should duck and cover or stay and support Lizzy. He took one look at her with her head in her hands and he made his decision.

Will took a step forward and put his best smile on. "Good evening ladies, can I help you?"

Mrs. Bennet reared back as Will's body loomed ahead of them seeming to take up all of the space in the hallway. "I'm just dropping in on Elizabeth Bennet," she said with her biggest smile. He made noises of recognition and unhappiness before he crossed his arms.

"Well, I'm afraid Ms. Bennet is very busy and can't see you at this time."

"Nonsense, she has time for her mother. Or at least I'm here to make sure she has time for her mother."

"I'm afraid she's in the middle of drafting a very important appellate brief which is due tomorrow."

"Oh my, this doesn't have anything to do with Charles does it?" Mrs. Bennet asked. "He said that criminal who sued him was appealing the decision."

"Yes, that's exactly right. She's only working this hard because it's Charles."

"As well she should for her future brother-in-law."

Will blanched. "Her what?"

"Well, they're not engaged yet, but they might as well be. It's only a matter of time as far as I can tell."

Will blinked at her and cleared his throat. "So you see, she can't have guests right now."

"Of course, tell her we'll see her at dinner tonight. Also, tell her that we're staying an extra week so we can attend the Netherfield Ball! She should clear her schedule so she can go shopping with us for a proper dress."

"I will convey that information to her." Will nodded his head solemnly.

"Thanks," she said before she and her silent daughter flittered away in a cloud of nauseating perfume. When Will was sure they were gone he leaned back and peered into Lizzy's office.

"You got all of that?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Yes," she groaned. "Thank you so much for that. You didn't have to."

"I know, but you know I love to play the white knight."

She grinned at him. "You've been my white knight plenty. Feel free to take a break."

"I will take that under advisement. You need anything else? A drink?"

"Oh jebus yes! A drink would be perfect." She stood up and shrugged her suit jacket on before grabbing her purse. "Let's go," she said stomping out of the office. He was in close pursuit when she ground to a halt and darted back towards her office. "They're still out there!" she said grabbing Will's arm.

"Where are we going?" he asked as they flew past her office.

"Back door."

"There's a back door?" he asked bewildered as she pushed him through a non-descript door.

"You're in it!" she shouted as she began stomping down the stairs. The stairwell opened out onto a back street and they headed over to the garage where their cars were parked.

"I'll drive," Will said as they approached his sports car. "You drink."

"Done and done," Lizzy said with a laugh as he opened her door for her.

As they left the garage and zipped down the street, Lizzy saw her mother and sister standing in front of the office building they had just left.

"I should have known they wouldn't leave right away."

"Your mother is…"

"A nightmare?" Lizzy suggested.

"Something else," he said conclusively. "She's something else."

"You're kind." Lizzy fell silent for a moment and then took a deep breath. "Could you just take me home?"

"I could just take you back to get your car," Will suggested.

"Yes, that's probably better." Lizzy fell quiet.

"What changed your mind?" he asked.

"I'm trying to be a better person," she said sadly. "I've got to put up with them for another week. I…I have to be a better person about it, right?"

Will didn't answer as he maneuvered the car back towards the garage. "You're already a pretty great person. From my limited interaction with your mother I – well, frankly I'm wondering how in the world you're related to her."

"I miss my father."

Will heard her choke up a bit and remained silent until she felt able to talk again.

"I moved to Florida to be closer to Jane and further away from my mother. In case you weren't aware. I got into a lot of law schools, but I chose Orlando because it's very, very far away."

"I get it. I think my sister did the same thing." Will frowned at the steering wheel. He had maneuvered his car into the space next to Lizzy's and parked.

"Who did she have to escape from?"

"Me. After our parents died I might have become…clingy? Protective? Overbearing?"

"With good excuse," Lizzy said fiercely. Her mother was a pain in her ass and her father was nearly nonexistent, but if she lost either of them, she'd cling to her sisters like a drowning woman to a life vest.

Will smiled for her and shook his head. "She needed time to grieve and I didn't allow that, I think. She's enjoyed her independence and she's made mistakes, but I think it was for the best."

"She was okay with you moving down here?"

"Yeah, well, things change." He was gruff and Lizzy didn't prod.

"Well, thanks for…helping me escape. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow," Will said thoughtfully as she climbed out of his car.

**Will paced his room for an hour.** How to broach the discussion of Charles's would-be betrothal. He knew Charles liked Jane a lot, but Charles had never mentioned marriage. How had Mrs. Bennet come to that conclusion? Just as he was summoning his courage to find Charles to talk about this, there was a rap at the door.

"Come in," Will called as he stopped pacing. Charles's head popped into the room.

"We're ordering Chinese, you want anything?"

"Yeah, just some beef and broccoli," Will said.

"Got it," Charles made to leave and Will felt his resolve waning.

"Wait!" Will called and Charles's head returned before he stepped into the room.

"What's up?"

Will took a deep breath. "I met Mrs. Bennet today."

"Oh wow, that must have been a fun time." Charles smiled and chuckled a bit.

"Yeah, it was a blast. Listen she said something that concerned me and I wanted to make sure you knew about it."

"Okay," Charles started to look concerned. _Good_, Will thought, _he should be concerned._

"Well, Mrs. Bennet showed up at Lizzy's office unexpectedly and I managed to intercept her. She was complaining about how hard Lizzy was working, so I lied that she was working on your case and Mrs. Bennet…well, she…she said something like Lizzy should be working this hard on her future brother-in-law's case." Charles's smile fell and his pallor turned even whiter, which Will hadn't thought possible.

"She thinks we're engaged?" Charles asked incredulously.

"No. She said you might as well be and it was only a matter of time."

Charles sat down on Will's bed and put his head in his hands. He looked up at his friend and asked "What gave her that impression? What should I do?"

"Well, you've already invited them to the Ball, so nothing for now. But once the Ball is over, I might suggest you take a step back," Will cleared his throat and avoided Charles's gaze.

"Take a step back? But, I like her. Hell, I love her. I don't want to get married right now, but I do love her."

"Have you told her?" Will asked looking at him.

"No, I was going to tell her at the Ball."

Will paused. If Charles truly loved her he didn't want to encourage him to leave her, but nor did he want to encourage a relationship where the love was all on one side.

"Tell her and see how she reacts. If you love her and she loves you, then don't worry about the marriage thing. But if she doesn't feel the same then there's a chance…"

"A chance?" Charles asked suspiciously.

"A chance that she's using you and that she's planted this idea in her mother's head."

"Have you met Jane? There's no way she's using me!"

"You're rich, you throw parties. Didn't you see how excited she was to cater the Ball? You're throwing business her way!" Will was practically shouting now.

"You're wrong. Jane is not the using type. She rarely even lets me pay for dinner! She insists on buying her own snacks at the movies if I buy the tickets. We went dutch on every date for the first month because she insisted. She is the furthest thing from a gold-digger I've ever seen!" Charles was up and pacing now.

"Fine. You're right," Will conceded. "I'm just saying it's a bit suspicious."

"Okay, you've got your suspicions, but I don't agree."

"You've been burned before," Will reminded him quietly.

Charles looked from Will down at his hands. "Jane is not like Lucy."

"I'm only trying to look out for you," Will said.

"I appreciate it, but I'm a grown man. I'll figure it out on my own." Charles stood and headed for the door. Without turning to look at Will he said, "Beef and Broccoli, got it."

Will watched his door swing shut a bit harder than necessary and swore under his breath. That hadn't gone nearly as well as he had hoped.

**Lizzy sat at her table and listened to her mother praise Will Darcy to the heavens.** She had gone home to be the better person she had told Will she would be and her mother and sister eventually migrated over to her condo from her office. Jane had been called in to reinforce the troops, but it turned out that her mother had done some research on her iPhone about Will Darcy.

The way Lizzy understood it her mother had found Will insufferably rude at the time they met. He had, apparently, no right to stop Mrs. Bennet from seeing her own daughter. He was proud, and rude, and just…insufferable. But…while they sat in relative silence in Lizzy's living room waiting for Jane to arrive so they could eat dinner, Mrs. Bennet pulled out her iPhone and Googled Will Darcy, or William Darcy as the fancy corporate website called him. He was, apparently, the majority share-holder of a multi-billion dollar corporation and the head of a charitable foundation named after his late father. His sister had been brought into society as a debutante and he had been in a number of high-profile relationships with models.

After listening to her mother rattle off this litany of "achievements" Lizzy cursed Google silently and rejoiced when Jane arrived. There had been a brief reprieve while Lizzy and Jane put the finishing touches on dinner.

"By the way," Lizzy said as she grated fresh parmesan on the salad, "I overheard Mom tell Will Darcy that you and Charles are practically engaged."

"What!" Jane nearly dropped the lasagna she was carrying. "He's going to tell Charles!"

"Probably," Lizzy replied.

"Charles is going to think I'm…I'm…trying to trap him or something!"

"No! Charles would never think that of you."

"Well, Will would."

"Oh," Lizzy said stopping and thinking. "That's probably not good."

"What do I do?" Jane asked her frantically. "I can't have him thinking that I'm a gold digger."

"Have you told him that you love him yet?"

"No, the time really hasn't seemed right," Jane sighed.

"That's good! If you try to keep it light and not too heavy, then he won't think you gave Mom the idea about an engagement, right?"

"So I should…pretend I don't love him?"

"No, I don't think that's necessary. Maybe just don't tell him for now. If he loves you then tell him! But not until then." Lizzy grabbed the salad bowl and the rolls and followed Jane out to the dining room table where her mother and sister were waiting.

All conversation about Jane and her problem came to a halt as their mother continued to sing the praises of Will Darcy. Rich, handsome, single. Those were the qualities Mrs. Bennet looked for in a man for her daughters. Jane had nearly hooked her own rich and handsome man, there was no reason that Lizzy couldn't land one as well.

"Mom! He works for me. We're not even colleagues, he's my intern. It would be unethical and trite to date him."

"Who cares! He won't be your intern forever. If you begin to cultivate something now, then when you're no longer his boss you can swoop in and snag him!"

"Why do you keep characterizing us as man-eaters?" Lizzy asked taking a bite of her dinner. She spoke around a mouthful to say, "We're not desperate gold diggers and we don't need to 'trap' or 'snag' or 'catch' a man like he's a wild animal!" She covered her mouth as some of her lasagna flew out of her mouth towards her mother.

"Well, it's no mystery to me why you're still single, Elizabeth. And considering how much like your father you are, I suppose it's for the best. Maybe Lydia here will be able to make a good impression on him at the Ball."

"Lydia's barely 17! He'd go to jail."

"She'll be 18 in the spring! They'd have to be long distance until she came down here for school anyway."

"Mom, he's my age," Lizzy said in frustration. "He won't be interested in a 17 year-old girl."

"That's not what I saw on all of those websites. He seems to like them young. That's probably why he hasn't gone for you."

Lizzy's face burned with rage and she bit back the words that would prove her mother wrong. Images of that night flashed through her mind and her rage turned into a flaming blush. She knew better than to engage her mother. She and Jane had learned long ago that it was best just to listen and be silent. Make a noise here and there when necessary, but whatever you do, never engage.

Lizzy turned back to that wisdom and kept her mouth shut while her mother rattled on. Another talent she had developed years ago was the ability to tune her mother out while still knowing when to make the appropriate noises. She focused on her dinner, murmured when necessary and kept her eyes down for the rest of dinner. It was what the better person would do. Lizzy really loathed being the better person.

Jane escorted their mother and sister back to her house and Lizzy cleaned up the dinner mess. Lizzy found solace in the mindless act of washing dishes. She had a perfectly good dishwasher, but on nights like tonight when her patience and resolve had been so severely tested, she needed the relaxing repetitive motions of dish washing.

Of course she was attracted to Will Darcy. She didn't need to know how rich he was to make him attractive. It was that line of thinking, and thinking out loud no less, that made everyone around them think Jane and Lizzy were gold diggers. Because their mother proclaimed to anyone who would listen about how rich their boyfriends were or some such nonsense like that. She sent a silent prayer into the universe that her mother's big mouth would not ruin Jane's relationship with Charles. Jane deserved all the happiness she could find.

As for her and Will, he was her intern, she was his boss. They had mutually agreed that it would be a bad idea. She thought about George Wickham. He'd been by her office a few times since he had told her the story of his and Will's friendship. He continued to reinforce the story of their relationship and she wondered how much of it was true. Somehow she knew that Will wasn't going to talk about it, so she only had one side of the story.

That wasn't all George talked about though. It turned out that they had a lot in common. He was clearly flirting with her and while she was a tough lawyer, she was still a woman who enjoyed the attention. As much as the feminist in her despised how good it made her feel she couldn't deny it. He had almost asked her out the other day, but Will had appeared at the door interrupting their conversation.

The dishes were done and exhaustion set in as Lizzy headed for bed. Days always seemed longer when her mother was around. She often wondered how she had survived growing up. A flash of memory appeared and she saw herself as a teenager reading in an armchair in her father's library. Her father was usually in the armchair across from her and she always felt at peace when the two of them were hiding in their world of books.

Lizzy felt tears spring to her eyes as she brushed her teeth and she choked on sobs as she continued the task. She wasn't happy. She hadn't truly been happy in many years and she wondered if she'd ever feel that way again.

Exhausted though she was, sleep eluded her and Lizzy lay in bed thinking. She thought about love, life, her family, her friends, and her future. She thought about these things as she watched the sun rise and heard her alarm sound. She had learned during bar prep that even if you couldn't sleep, just the act of lying in bed would be enough to restore you a bit. Lizzy dragged herself to the shower and prepared for another long day. That's really what bar prep was about after all. It was as much preparing you for a life a sleepless nights as it was teaching you the law. She did it then and she could do it now.

**Will entered Lizzy's office after she bade him to come in.** He was distraught to find George Wickham in her office once again. Lizzy's face burned with a blush and George was looking unbearably smug. George knew something about Will's feelings for Lizzy. Will was damned if he knew how, but he knew that George knew something.

"Well," George said standing up, "I'd better let you get back to work. I'll see you tonight?"

"Yup," she said quickly before turning her attention to Will. "What do you have for me?"

"You're going out with him?"

"It's just for drinks," she said defensively.

Will was silent and thoughtful for a moment. There was so much he wanted to tell her, and so much he couldn't. "Just be careful."

"What does that mean?"

"Don't give his name to your concierge desk, don't invite him up to your place after. Don't go to his place. Just be careful."

"Got it, thanks." Her words were clipped and cool and she put her glasses back on and held her hand out for Will's notes. He handed her his work and stood awkwardly while she reviewed it. After a moment of silence she looked at him and pushed her glasses atop her head to say, "Look, just because you and I have agreed to be just friends doesn't give you the right–" her voice cut out. "I'm sorry, that was…unprofessional. Forgive me."

Will just shook his head. She looked at him a moment longer and then went back to reviewing the pages. "May I sit?"

She looked up and smiled, "Of course, have a seat. Sorry." After a few more minutes she handed the document back. "Good work. I saw a few typos, so make sure you proof it once more. When I've signed it you can bring it to the runner to be filed."

"Will do," he stood up and took the pages back.

"You're doing a great job, Will. How much longer do we have you?"

"I'm going to be part time when school starts up. Though Mr. Gardner approved my vacation time for the month of August so I can go back to Maryland to take care of some business."

"So we're losing you after the Netherfield Ball?"

"Just for a few weeks," he said with a smile at the tone in her voice.

"Lucky. I only get a week in August."

"Well, I'd better get this fixed up for you."

Lizzy nodded and went to answer her ringing phone.

"Hello?"

"Lizzy?" It was Charlotte.

"Hey Char? What's going on?"

"I have to tell you something. It's big."

"What?" Lizzy felt her stomach drop.

"I'm in Maryland! Bill and I have eloped!"

"You and Who?"

"Bill Collins! We met outside of your condo building and we hit it off straightaway. I went home with him and we've eloped!"

Lizzy sat in stunned silence. Her best friend from law school, her study partner, her legal rock had gone to Maryland and eloped. With BILL COLLINS?

"Lizzy? Are you there?"

**Author's Notes: At long last! Sorry for the delay, but I'm on a roll now. I know things are a little out of order from the original book, but this was the only way I could think to make the major events happen because of the time restraints in travel, etc. I hope you enjoyed it and I'm hard at work on the next chapter. Thanks for reading!**


	8. Interlocutory Appeal

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. My page breaks weren't working so I've bolded new sections.

**Lizzy swallowed hard and forced herself to speak.** "Char, did I hear you right? You eloped to Maryland with Bill Collins."

"Yes, exactly!" Charlotte sounded so happy, Lizzy mustered up her high school drama club experience.

"Wow!" Lizzy forced more sincerity behind her voice. "That's, um, great! I mean, wow!"

"Look, I've already resigned my position in Orlando and I'm going to take the Maryland Bar in February. I'd love it if you could come up next month after we're settled in."

"Um, sure! I'd _love_ to come see you," Lizzy forced the words out. Maybe Bill wouldn't be so terrible if he wasn't attempting to woo her, but she doubted it.

"Excellent! I'll email you and we can hash out the details. I'd better go. I just wanted you to hear from me."

"Thanks Char and congrats!"

Lizzy hung up her phone slowly and found Will standing in the doorway of her office. She waved him in and he presented the new document to her. She scanned it quickly before signing it with a flourish and handed it back silently.

"You okay?" Will asked quietly.

Lizzy could only shake her head no. Speaking was not an option at the moment.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She shook her head no again.

"Okay, I'll get this to the runner." He left her to her silence and shut the door to her office behind him. She could only put her arms on her desk and lower her head onto them. Exhaustion kicked in as she thought about the fact that her best friend had married the most officious man she'd ever met. And that she, Lizzy, would have to spend her one week of vacation a YEAR visiting her best friend and that officious, pompous windbag. The idea caused her to burst into the laughter of incredulity which eventually dissolved into tears of despair. Her phone buzzed from reception and Lizzy took a moment to collect herself.

"Yes?"

"Ms. Bennet, pardon the interruption, but your mother and sister are here."

"I'll be right out," she said with a huge sigh and a grumble. Checking her reflection in the hand mirror she kept in her drawer she wiped off some errant mascara. Satisfied with her appearance she went out to the reception area.

Her mother and Lydia were sitting idly on the leather couches each absorbed with their phones when Lizzy walked out.

"What can I do for you Mother?"

"We're going shopping and you're coming along," her mother announced.

"I have work to do," Lizzy said through clenched teeth.

It was at that moment that Lizzy's boss Mr. Gardiner walked by.

"Lizzy, is everything all right?"

"Mr. Gardiner, may I introduce my mother, Margaret Bennet. Mom, this is our managing partner, Mr. Gardiner."

"A pleasure," Mrs. Bennet said coyly.

"For me as well," Mr. Gardiner said shaking her hand. "Was there some trouble?" He asked looking at Lizzy.

"No, they just want me to go shopping with them, sir."

"Well, how long are you in town for Mrs. Bennet?"

"Just a few more days," Mrs. Bennet lied.

"I don't see why you can't play hooky for an afternoon, Ms. Bennet. Just make sure the interns have plenty to do." With that he gave Lizzy a genial pat on the back and walked off.

"Thanks Mr. Gardiner," Lizzy said feebly as he walked off. To her mother she said, "Let me just make sure the interns are busy and I'll grab my purse."

Lizzy left her mother and sister as she found them and walked back to the interns' office. She stood in the doorway and Will was the first to notice her.

"Hey guys, I've got to head out for the rest of the afternoon, but Mr. Gardiner asked me to make sure you had enough work for the day. How's the Simpson divorce coming along Mary?"

"I'll have the documents ready to be signed on Monday morning."

"Good, John? Have you heard back from Traveler's about Mr. Caine's settlement?"

"They sent a counter-offer for only $8,000. I'm drafting a rejection and counter."

"Good. Will, how's the document review coming?"

"I've reviewed about 75% of the docs on the thumb drive."

"Okay, keep it up. I'll see you all on Monday. Have a good weekend."

They all chorused goodbyes to her and she went to her office and grabbed her handbag before heading to her doom. Lizzy was not a shopper. But most of all, she hated shopping with her mother. _Forget waterboarding_, Lizzy thought glumly, _trap the terrorists in a changing room with my mother and they'd spill the beans in half the time_.

**Lizzy tried on the 10****th**** little black dress her mother had handed to her.** It was ironic that her mother was the one picking out the dresses as well as the one who found something wrong with _every single dress_. Lizzy had thought several of them had looked great and was ready to check out, but Mrs. Bennet would not let Lizzy out of the dressing room unless she was 100% satisfied. Lizzy examined the current dress and thought it looked fabulous, flattering neckline, spaghetti straps, and a decent length. She sent up a tiny prayer to the heavens that her mother would approve of this one so they could get out of this ridiculous shop.

"Lizzy," her mother called, "Come show us the dress. If this is the one then Lydia and I can start looking."

Lizzy nearly burst out of the dressing room and had to fight to control the volume of her voice. "You haven't done any shopping for Lydia or yourself this _whole time_?"

"Of course not, Lizzy. I couldn't possibly find you the right dress without focusing completely. Now look at that. It's perfect, you look absolutely beautiful. Now I'll go find Lydia's dress."

Lizzy blushed and realized that she was finally done. At the very least she would only have to sit on a comfy chair and make noises at her family's fashion show. "Great."

Back in her normal work clothes she pulled a paperback novel out of her purse and waited for her mother and sister to get dresses.

"Lizzy," her mother called from the dressing room, "I need you to talk to Jane."

"About what?" Lizzy asked looking up as her mother stepped out wearing a tight, bright red, spangly number. Lizzy winced and shook her head which sent her mother back in.

"I can't find out from her how close she and Charlie have gotten. I think she's going to need to do a bit more if she wants to snag him."

"_Snag_ him? Mom, she's a successful business woman, why does she need to snag him?"

Mrs. Bennet came out in a slightly more demure green number that brought out her eyes. Lizzy gave her a thumbs up as she examined herself. "If she wants Charlie to propose she'll have to give him more encouragement!"

"Has she told you that she wants that?"

"She won't tell me anything!" Mrs. Bennet walked back into the dressing room.

"Jane is Jane and nothing I say will change that! Besides, if it's meant to happen it will happen."

"She could hardly do better than him," Mrs. Bennet said as she came out in shiny black dress.

"Too tight," Lizzy said dismissively. "So I'm to tell Jane that she needs to ramp up her…what? The sex? The flirting? What?"

"She needs to tell him she loves him. She needs to assert herself as his life partner."

Lizzy stared at the closed dressing room door. "How exactly does one assert oneself as someone's life partner?"

"Oh you know, spend more time at his place, cook for him, show him what his life would be like with her in it!" Mrs. Bennet appeared in a dark burgundy cocktail dress with a bejeweled overlay.

"Oooh, that's nice," Lizzy said appreciatively. She watched her mother examine herself for a moment before saying, "She does that all the time. You wouldn't know because she spends all of her free time cooking for you and Lydia and entertaining you."

"Well, she shouldn't worry about us. Tell her not to worry about us."

"I have told her that."

"This is the one," Mrs. Bennet said as she went back to change into her regular clothes. "Lydie, how are you doing?"

"I've tried them all, but I can't decide!" The younger girl whined.

"Come out and let us look," Mrs. Bennet said joining Lizzy in a chair.

Lizzy assumed the conversation about Jane was over, so she focused on her book while her mother focused on her little sister.

**Jane Bennet was hosting dinner that evening for the whole group.** The whole group including not just her family, but the Bingley group as well. Will could only surmise that with seven people crammed into Jane's cozy dining room it was probable that some embarrassment would occur.

"It's entirely selfish on my part getting all of you here," Jane announced as dinner was served. "After dinner I'm going to need you all to taste test some things I've made for the Netherfield Ball."

There were several different reactions at the table. Will noticed Caroline rolling her eyes and sneering. She would not want to taste test desserts as her diet rarely allowed for eating, let alone sweets. Jane and Lizzy's mother clapped her hands in glee and Charlie gave her the sort of gooey smile that a man in love is full of. He was pretty far gone, Charlie. Will knew that it wouldn't do to press him on the subject and Will had to admit that a woman running her own business was probably not after a man's money. Jane lived comfortably and had never expressed a desire for finer things than she already had. In fact, Charlie spent a great deal of time at her house, rather more than she did at his. All this led Will to believe that the mother definitely had designs on a rich son-in-law, but Jane was merely…happy. Ever since his encounter with Mrs. Bennet at work he had been watching Jane whenever they were together. She only had eyes for Charlie and though her behavior was modest and she never showed much affection in front of others, he had it on good authority from Charlie that she was not frigid in private.

If hand-holding was the extent of public displays of affection for Jane, well, Will could not fault her. He himself had never been very affectionate in public. He had to agree with Bingley that his fears had been unfounded. Jane was lovely and he would be glad to get to know her better as his best friend's wife, if that was Charlie's eventual aim. It would, of course, throw him together with Lizzy more often, which Will was not the least bit upset about. His internship wouldn't last forever and even if he was lucky enough to parlay the internship into a job, they would be co-workers and there was nothing wrong with co-workers dating.

Will was distracted by Lizzy and Jane conferring at the kitchen counter which could be seen through an opening in the wall of the dining room. He tried to hear, but Caroline was droning on about some party she was going to that weekend and he couldn't seem to shut her shrill voice out. Lizzy was blushing though and Jane seemed to be laughing, probably teasing. They came out carrying trays of mini desserts and placed them on the table.

"Well, I hate to be the first one to leave a party, but I've got a date." She kissed her mother's cheek in a rare show of affection and waved at everyone.

Will suddenly remembered George Wickham and jumped to his feet to follow her out. "Lizzy," he said catching her at the front door, "You'll remember what I said earlier?"

"I'll be fine, Will. There's no need to worry."

"Just…don't leave your drink alone with him."

"Are you – Are you accusing George of being a date rapist?"

Will stood in stony silence, unwilling to answer the question. Lizzy's eyes narrowed.

"What happened? Tell me."

"I can't," he said shortly.

"You're trying to scare me," Lizzy hissed.

"I'm not, I swear."

"I'm not sure what to believe between the two of you and your stories, but I've promised to go out with him tonight and I promise you I'll be safe. All right?"

Will took a moment to compose himself. "Fine."

"I'll see you on Monday."

Will could only watch her go. He had no right to stop her. He would find some way to check up on her. Somehow.

"Mr. Darcy," Mrs. Bennet called from the dining room. "You had better hurry back if you want to try a dessert. They are disappearing fast."

Will walked back to the dining room and put on his most courteous voice. "Please, Mrs. Bennet, call me Will. And I see that Charlie is the one eating all of the desserts." He smiled at his friend.

"They're delicious!" Charlie said through a full mouth.

"We're going to play a board game, Will, do you want to join us?" Lydia asked in what she must have supposed to be a seductive voice. This made him laugh.

"I'd be happy to," Will said helping them clear the table. He saw the perplexed smile of Charlie and the shocked look on Caroline's face. "I like board games," he said in what he hoped was his most innocent voice.

**Despite Lizzy's insistence that she would be safe, she couldn't help but feel uneasy after Will's warnings.** She vowed that she would have no more than two drinks, nor would she leave her drink unguarded at any time. At least Will couldn't fault her for that.

"Every time I go to your office to fix something I think about what my life _could_ have been and then to see Darcy there, it just makes me twice as angry."

George was outpacing her almost three drinks to one and she began to worry that this was going to be the "We Hate Will Darcy" crying hour. Having spent time with Will, she knew almost instinctively that he was a good person. It was one of the things that made her a good lawyer, her ability to read people, to instinctively know what kind of person she was dealing with. That instinct had saved her from many bad dates in college and law school.

That was what was so intriguing and also so infuriating about George. She couldn't seem to read him. He was just the right amount of charming and self-deprecating, yet he continually harped on about how Will had wronged him. That alone was enough to drive her nuts.

But how was she supposed to respond to this litany of complaints? She sipped her drink slowly and made the correct noises and head movements. She hoped that after a while he would sense her boredom.

"But enough about him. Tell me about yourself," George prompted her.

"What do you want to know?"

"What were you like as a little girl?"

She thought for a moment. "I was rambunctious. I like to call it spirited."

"Wild child?" he smiled at her.

"No, actually. I was daddy's little girl. I adored him and would never have gone against him."

"I can see that. Word around the office is that you're an overachiever."

"I'm a hard worker and a good lawyer. That's all."

"Modesty looks good on you."

"I'm not being modest George. I'm just being honest."

"Fine, fine." He paused for a bit considering her drink. "Have you met Will's sister yet?"

"No," Lizzy said deflating as she saw the direction his conversation was heading in.

"She's a lot like her brother. Proud and insufferable."

Lizzy did not agree with that assessment, but only nodded her head as she sipped.

"I knew her when she was a little kid. She's about 10 years younger than Darcy and used to tag along with us when we went crabbing or bike-riding. But when she got older she became a bit of a snob."

"I wouldn't call attending a mid-level state school in Florida being a snob."

"No, well she probably needed to get out of Darcy's overprotective grip."

Lizzy thought it odd that he should say exactly Will's fear, but didn't say it out loud.

"Did I tell you that I got into Princeton Law?"

"No," Lizzy said attempting to sound impressed. Princeton did not have a law school.

"Oh yes, I did very well on my LSATs, but at the end of the day I just couldn't afford to go."

Having racked up over $100,000 in student loan debt herself at a low-tier, small, private law school, she couldn't sympathize with him. Again, she made the appropriate noises.

At that moment her phone rang. She had never loved her phone more than she did right this second. Clutching her drink in one hand, she excused herself and answered her phone as she walked away from George.

**Jane didn't know why she was calling Lizzy on her date, but Will had been so insistent that she couldn't possibly deny him.** When Lizzy answered she said, "Hi Lizzy."

"Jane! Is everything all right?"

"Yes, everything is fine, it's just…well, it's the weirdest thing."

"What is?" Lizzy asked over the din of the bar.

Jane turned her body away from Charlie and Will in the hopes that they wouldn't hear her. "Will has kept Charlie and Caroline here all evening playing board games with Lydia and then he insisted that I call you."

"Has he?" Lizzy smiled. "I'm assuming it's so that I can feign an emergency and get out of this dreadfully dull date with George Wickham."

"Let me confirm that," Jane said. She covered the receiver and turned back towards Will and Charlie. "Will, did I call Lizzy so that she could feign an emergency in order to get out of her dreadfully dull date with George Wickham?"

"George Wickham?" Charlie asked. "Lizzy's out with him?"

"Yes," Will said with a stony face. "She's fine."

"Of course she's fine," Jane said, "hold on." Turning back to the phone she said to Lizzy, "Yes, that's exactly right."

"Excellent. Thank Will for me."

"Will do," Jane said before hanging up. "She says 'thank you' Will. What is going on?"

"George Wickham," Charlie said angrily, "isn't he the one who–"

"Charlie, please," Will cut him off. "He used to be an old friend, but he's…he isn't anymore."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jane said. "I don't understand why Lizzy shouldn't have gone out with him."

"It's a long story," Will said sighing. "Well, I'm beat. Perhaps we should get home, Charlie?"

"Yes, of course."

Charlie called for Caroline before tenderly bidding Jane goodnight. Will turned his back on the scene for Jane and for himself. The scene was personal and reinforced his belief that she was as much in love with him as he was with her. Perhaps he should tell Charlie about that.

**Lizzy hung up her phone and turned back to George, grateful for only having had two drinks.**

"George, I'm so sorry," she tried to put an edge of fear in her voice. "I've got to go, Jane's been in an accident and I've got to go help her."

"Oh, wow, really?" Lizzy nodded and tried to conjure up some crocodile tears. "Shit, well, yeah, you'd better go then."

"Thanks, I'll see you around!"

"Bye!" he called to her retreating form.

Will hadn't said he would bore her to death, but it had been a close call. His idea to have Jane call had been genius and she really owed him one for that. As Lizzy got to her car she climbed in and drove herself home. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed for the weekend and forget today, but instead she checked her email and saw a message from Charlotte. She and Bill were going to take advantage of Catherine de Bourgh's summer home on the bay for two weeks and then they would return home to set up their life together. _Why the rush?_ Lizzy wondered. She knew that Maryland was notorious for elopements, but she wondered at Charlotte and Bill needing to elope. Lizzy sighed and booked a flight to see Charlotte in a few weeks.

Part of Lizzy regretted not being invited to the wedding, but Charlotte assured her it had been a small affair and that they didn't even have a reception, just a small brunch party; nothing for Lizzy to leave work for. Charlotte had preferred that Lizzy spend her vacation time wisely. Once her flight was booked, Lizzy changed into the shorts and tank top that she slept in and got ready for bed. Just as she was pulling out the book she was currently reading, she heard a knock at the door.

With more than a little trepidation she tiptoed to her door and peered out of the peephole.

"Will?" she asked aloud.

"Yes," he said through the door.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she swung the door open.

"I wasn't going to be able to sleep until I saw for myself that you were okay."

"I'm okay," she said amazed.

"I see that," he replied with a nod.

"All right then." They stood in her doorway in silence for a moment. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Great. Do you want to come in for a drink?"

"I shouldn't," he said, but he didn't move.

"Just because you shouldn't doesn't mean you can't."

"I'd better go."

Lizzy stared at him in amazement. "Fine."

For someone who had better go, he wasn't leaving.

"Come in," she said forcefully.

He followed her into the apartment without protest.

"Have a seat," she ordered.

He sat.

"What can I get you?" she asked.

"Nothing," he said turning to watch her in the kitchen.

She came out carrying coffee cups. "Been a long day," she sipped her drink. "Milk and sugar?"

"No, black is fine," he took the cup from her.

"I hear you spent all evening playing games with my baby sister."

"Your mother was there in the beginning, but she got tired."

"You outstayed my mother? I'm impressed."

"I was worried."

"I figured, but I can't understand why."

"George Wickham is–"

"No," Lizzy cut him off. "You warned me, I took it to heart. So why were you worried about me?"

"I like you, I didn't want you to get hurt."

"Of course," she said drinking her coffee. She sank back into her couch cushions next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder. "It's been a long day."

"Yeah. I hear you found the perfect little black dress for the Ball."

"I did. It only took 10 dresses to find it."

"Sounds like torture," Will said with a laugh.

"That's what I thought!" Lizzy laughed with him.

The laughter subsided and she rested her eyes thinking about how her head met his shoulder with so little effort on her part. And then she felt the pressure of his head atop hers. _What a strange turn of events_, Lizzy thought to herself as she drifted off to sleep on Will Darcy's shoulder.

_Author's Note: Not much to say, I've started another school program for the year, but mostly I was blocked. For those of you who recall, I did in fact pass the bar exam and am almost a licensed lawyer in Florida. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!_


	9. In Contempt of Court

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. My page breaks weren't working so I've bolded new sections.

**Lizzy woke up alone in her bed the next morning.** She stretched and checked the clock before heading out to the living room. Will was sleeping on the couch with two cups of coffee sitting on the coffee table. He must have put her in bed, because she certainly didn't remember going to bed. Will had found a throw blanket and was stretched out so much that he was practically falling off of the couch. She cleaned up the coffee cups and went back into her bedroom to change into her running clothes.

As she was lacing up her shoes she heard Will moving in the living room and she went out to check on him.

"Good morning," she said as he sat on the sofa rubbing his eyes. "For the record, I have a guest room."

"Good to know," he said stretching his back out. "Couch was pretty comfy, though."

"Oh, I've spent many a night snoozing on it," she said with a smile.

"You're going for a run?" He asked pointing at her sneakers.

"Yes, before it gets too hot."

He stood up, "I'd better leave."

"Yes, I think I heard that somewhere," she gave him a cheeky smile. "You want to come with me?"

"Really?" He asked looking at her amazed.

"You've got the appropriate footwear on."

"I'd like that, thanks."

**Will didn't know how he could feel such kinship with someone when no words were being exchanged**, but there they were running silently next to each other around the lake in downtown Orlando that Will had only ever driven past. It was early yet and there were only a few runners out taking advantage of the cool weather. Lizzy didn't need music to run she just went. The rigors of law school had kept him from running for some time so he was struggling to keep up, but he noticed Lizzy changing her gait when she realized it. She also kept checking on him to make sure he hadn't fallen behind. They ran one lap around the lake before Lizzy stopped and stretched out.

Will noticed that she didn't seem the least bit tired. In fact, she was most likely used to running more than one lap, but she had stopped for him. All of these little considerate acts told him everything he needed to know about her, but of course deep down he already knew them. She was thoughtful and kind and didn't mind sacrificing herself for the sake of others. He wished he could have that first night back. He knew that she had overheard his unkind words about her and until just this moment, when he truly understood what an amazing woman she was, he hadn't felt the full weight of his regret.

"Lizzy," he said stopping himself because he really didn't know what to say.

"Yes?" she looked up from her stretch on the ground.

"I'm not sure I ever…" he was desperate to apologize, but not sure how to say the words. "er – thanked you for the job."

"No problem, Will. Mr. Gardiner is thrilled with me for finding you."

They shared a smile and he felt even more guilt. He would make it up to her someday.

They walked back to Lizzy's place and he found that he didn't want to leave. Something about her home was comforting to him and he enjoyed spending time with her. Though every moment he felt as though he should leave, he simply couldn't bring himself to do it. Lizzy cooked them breakfast while he grabbed a shower in the guest bath and when he came out she handed him a steaming hot mug of coffee, black.

"Help yourself to breakfast, I'm going to take a quick shower." Lizzy wandered off and left him to his own devices. He grabbed one of the plates she had left out and helped himself to scrambled eggs and bacon. With his breakfast in hand he wandered into the living room and turned on the television. Settling on a news network, he worked his way through his food and went back for seconds. Lizzy came out looking clean and refreshed and she made her own plate and joined him on the couch to watch the news. Will was overcome by an undeniable feeling of home. And suddenly it no longer scared him.

**The evening of the ball was fast approaching. **Lizzy found herself spending more time with Will as Charles was busy with preparations and spent what little free time he had with Jane who seemed to be baking all of the hours of the day and night. At first he told Lizzy that he couldn't stand to be alone with Caroline in the house, but she suspected after the first few nights they had spent at her place watching movies and hanging out that he enjoyed spending time with her. Almost as much as she enjoyed spending time with him.

It was the night before the Netherfield Ball, and Will and Lizzy were sitting in her living room in comfortable silence. The TV was on for background noise and they each had their laptops out. Lizzy could feel his eyes on her and when she looked up she caught a strange look on his face. She smiled for him and he seemed to come to as though he'd been daydreaming.

"Sorry. Lost in thought," he said smiling ruefully.

"I've been lost in that maze once or twice," she replied going back to her work.

"I'm leaving on Sunday to return to Maryland," he said in an off-hand manner.

Lizzy was more surprised by the pang this caused in her chest than the strange change of subject. "Right," she said clearing her throat and avoiding his eye. "My flight is on Thursday."

"That's right, your 'vacation'." He made sure to put air quotes around the word vacation for her.

Lizzy giggled and hit him lightly on the shoulder, but he caught her hand and held it. She looked up at him and felt her breath leave her body in a rush of air. "Will…"

Again, he seemed to realize where he was and he dropped her hand unceremoniously. "Sorry," he said shutting his computer and standing up.

"Um…it's okay. Do you need something?"

"I need to go," he said automatically. It had become a familiar refrain over the past week or so and she knew he said it out of some sense of obligation, but that he rarely ever acted on it.

"Okay," she said confident that he would stay, but he picked up his laptop and began packing it up. "Oh, you're serious!" she stood up and attempted to cover the feelings of embarrassment that had washed over her. But awkward is really what happened.

"Charlie is going to be going nuts tomorrow and I promised I'd be on standby to help with last minute emergencies."

"Sure, I promised I'd help Jane finish up her desserts and get ready, so I guess I'll see you tomorrow night."

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow night." He leaned in impetuously and gave her an awkward half hug before rushing out of her front door.

Lizzy felt the surge of adrenaline leave her body and she nearly collapsed on the sofa. The shock of his touch, the pang in her chest, and the disappointment when he left all pointed to one thing. She was falling for him and there was nothing she could do about. Forthright Lizzy, impetuous headstrong Lizzy had never backed down from a challenge before. When she wanted something she charged after it head first and she got it. But this playing at being friends thing was going to be the death of her. It was clear that he still considered her off limits and she would do the same. Their respective vacations couldn't happen at a better time.

**Saturday morning arrived and Will was charged with meeting the vendors at the Church Street Ballroom.** Thankfully Charlie assured him that they would all know what to do and all he had to do was oversee things and sign for items. He drove downtown in his track pants and t-shirt and was greeted at the door to the ballroom by a man in a suit who let him in. He found his way to the back entrance where the deliveries were expected and took a seat. After a few minutes he pulled out his phone and began to check his email and read the Wall Street Journal until someone arrived. He was scrolling through the headlines when one particular one caught his attention and made him sit up.

_Department of Justice Announces Investigation of Bingley Enterprises._

The article referenced a recent acquisition offer made by Bingley Enterprises of another large business and the investigation apparently centered on accusations of monopoly and violations of the Antitrust Act. Will swore under his breath and emailed the article to Charlie. Charles had been so busy recently he had been neglecting business and while he knew about the acquisition, he most certainly didn't know about the investigation.

"Will?" Will looked up and found Lizzy carrying two large plastic tubs.

"What are you doing here?" he asked a bit harsher than he had meant to.

"I'm helping Jane deliver the desserts. Point me to the kitchen?" Lizzy had turned noticeably frosty and Will swore at himself again for snapping at her.

"It's down the hall, on the right." She nodded and walked away without a word.

Will looked at his phone and noticed an email from Charlie.

_Shit. Booking flight to D.C. for first thing tomorrow morning. Thanks Will. C_

Will felt relief that Charles had the matter in hand and he looked up at Lizzy who had a grim look on her face.

"How much more do you have?" he asked in a much softer tone.

"No worries, I'll make it quick," Lizzy said brushing him off and heading out the door.

"I meant to help you Lizzy," he said following her out to the delivery truck with Jane's logo painted on the side.

"No need," she said angrily. Will was momentarily distracted by Jane's car pulling up beside the delivery truck and Lizzy used the distraction to grab more tubs and carry them inside.

"Will!" Jane said with a huge smile on her face. "I'm so glad you're here. Could you help me get this monstrosity into the building?" She pointed at a tall rolling cart that had a lot of movable trays on it.

"Absolutely," Will said climbing the loading plank with her.

"Is everything all right? Lizzy looked upset."

"I was a bit harsh earlier. She caught me by surprise," he said as the rolled the cart slowly down the plank. "I'd apologize but she keeps brushing me off."

"She's been in a bit of a mood today. I wouldn't take her too seriously."

Will nodded and guided her into the kitchen as Lizzy brushed past them to get more tubs. Fortunately for Will, the florist showed up when they returned to the delivery truck and he was able to busy himself with showing him into the ballroom. When he returned to the loading dock the bakery truck and Jane's car were gone. Jane didn't even know about the investigation. But of course it wasn't his place to tell her.

**Lizzy zipped her sister into a pale blue confection of a dress.** After delivering the desserts the sisters went to the hair dresser to get ready for the party. Jane had gone for a sleek up do with a few becoming curls framing her face, where Lizzy had gone with a more relaxed style that hung low on her head and softened her severe bone structure. With just an hour to go they were helping each other with finishing touches at Jane's house. Jane's dress was extremely low cut in the back, exposing most of her back and a great deal of effort went into using the appropriate undergarments so that Jane was sexy, but still modest. Lizzy stepped into her impossibly high black heels and adjusted her dress to cover her own undergarments. They heard their mother screeching for them to hurry from the living room and they grimaced at each other.

"Lizzy, that dress is stunning," Jane said as she zipped it up.

"Not at all," Lizzy said blushing. "You look spectacular. Every man is going to wish they were Charles Bingley tonigh."

Jane blushed as well and smiled. "Tonight's the night, Lizzy."

"For what?" Lizzy asked as she touched up her lipstick in the mirror.

"I'm going to tell him I love him."

"Janey! That's a big step!"

"I know. I hope it goes well." Jane was playing with her necklace in the way she did when she was nervous.

"It will," Lizzy wrapped her arms around her sister and kissed her soundly on the cheek. "He clearly loves you too, so it will be fine."

"Thanks Lizzy."

"_GIRLS!_" Mrs. Bennet called from the other room.

"We're coming!" Lizzy called back. "Are you sure there's not a way to lose Mom and Lydia on the way to the party?" Jane only smiled.

**Will could tell Charlie was preoccupied.** He wished there was something he could say to ease his mind over the situation, but an investigation by the DOJ was no small thing. Charlie prided himself on operating a clean business and this kind of thing took a toll on him.

"Try to pretend you're having a good time," Will said hoping he sounded calm himself.

They were sitting in the back of a limo on the way to the ballroom.

"Isn't this kind of thing what lawyers are for?" Caroline asked bored with the conversation. "Why don't you just let them handle it?"

"It's not that simple," Charlie said fiddling with his wristwatch. "You can stay here Caroline. You don't have to worry about it." Caroline seemed to sense a tone in his voice that brooked no argument and let the matter drop.

"Charlie, I'm sorry I had to inform you before your big party, but I knew you would want to know immediately. The most important thing right now is to act natural. Chances are sixty percent of the guests have read that article and will be scrutinizing you for any signs of weakness or distress. You have to remain calm, act relaxed, and be your usual charming self. You'll have Jane by your side and you are strong. You can do this."

The look in Charlie's eyes changed as he nodded and Will thought his little pep talk had done its job. Charlie would be okay. Will was also a bit nervous. He and Lizzy had been spending a lot of time together lately and he could feel himself changing. It had been quite some time since he had felt something like this for another person. Feelings or no, Will Darcy stood behind his original idea. He would not get involved with his boss.

**Lizzy handed her keys to a valet attendant and escorted her mother and sisters into the Church Street Station lobby.** The first floor lobby was beautifully decorated in flowers and greenery and a big banner with the words "Netherfield Ball" and "Bingley Enterprises Welcomes You!" hung from the balcony rail. The Bennet women handed their bags to the woman at coat check and made their way to the stairs. Lizzy squeezed Jane's hand comfortingly and led the way up the stairs to the ballroom.

The room was splendid in white and silver decorations. Lizzy had peeked in earlier and seen a drab beige room with orange highlights, but the decorators had swathed anything that would stand still (including the walls) in white and silver and used white and silver helium balloons to hide the rest. There were tables around the edge of the room for dinner and a dance floor in the middle. The band on the riser was playing soft classical music at the moment and waiters in black were carrying trays of champagne and hors d'oeuvres.

Mrs. Bennet handed Jane and Lizzy their seating cards and they made their way to their table. Caroline was standing near the table talking to the friend she had invited and sipping from a glass of champagne. Caroline greeted Jane in a friendly manner, but gave Lizzy and her mother and Lydia a cursory nod.

Lizzy grabbed a glass from a passing waiter and looked around the room. She found Will standing in the middle of the floor speaking with another man. The discussion looked serious and Lizzy felt her face flush as she remembered not only his tone from this morning, but also her own reaction to it. She had overreacted, she knew that, but she had been thinking about him almost non-stop and when he had spoken to her like that she hadn't been able to help it. Her only hope was to avoid him tonight. With time and separation she might be able to regain her balance and perspective and then they could go back to being just friends. He would be a second year in the fall and if he decided to stay with Gardner and Klein that was two more years before he would be a fully licensed lawyer. She didn't think she would be able to handle two more years of this.

As if Will could feel her gaze, he looked up at her and smiled. Lizzy attempted to smile back, but was certain it looked more like a grimace. She watched him wrap up his conversation and head towards her. Unable to watch his progress she turned to see Charlie pulling Jane aside to talk. Lizzy's brow furrowed as she noticed his serious expression and she jumped when Will touched her arm.

"You look beautiful tonight," he said quietly.

"Thank you," she felt herself blush and cursed her pale skin. "You look very nice."

"Just very nice?" he asked with a teasing smile. Lizzy was flabbergasted. How was she meant to act? One minute he was harsh and the next he was flirting. One minute he was holding her hand, the next he couldn't wait to get away from her. It was enough to drive the sanest person insane. She was so used to being calm, cool, and in control that this feeling of helplessness seemed to knock the wind out of her.

She was so confused by his behavior that she could only stammer and say, "No, not just very nice," before blushing again.

"Relax, Lizzy. It's a party."

"I have to see how Jane is," Lizzy turned to walk away, but Will caught her by the arm.

"Jane is fine. Look, she's with Charlie and their both smiling."

"Is Charlie all right? He seems a bit off," Lizzy said scrutinizing the man from afar.

Will marveled at her ability to read people. "He's got a lot on his mind, but he'll be okay."

"Hors d'oeuvres?" A waiter paused and presented them with a tray. Lizzy and Will both took one which gave them ample time to stand in awkward silence while they chewed.

Lizzy was about to speak when Charlie appeared at the microphone before the band and tapped his champagne with a fork.

"I'd like to take a moment to welcome you all to the first annual Bingley Enterprises Netherfield Ball." There was a smattering of applause. "Orlando has been a welcoming place for our Florida branch and I look forward to many years of success and cooperation with the esteemed business community of the city beautiful!" More applause from the crowd. "At this time, dinner is about to be served, so please find your seats and enjoy the rest of your evening. Thank you."

The crowd applauded again and began to segregate into groups by table. Will followed Lizzy to their table and took the seat next to her, to her continued surprise. The evening was pleasant as Will generally acted as her escort, introducing her to people and including her in discussions. Her ability to hold her own in those conversations gave her a sense of pride and she enjoyed the evening much more than she expected to.

Despite Will's assurances, Lizzy kept a close eye on Charles and Jane as they made the rounds. Charlie was clearly not himself, but kept up his smile and Jane was beaming as he introduced her around and claimed her as his girlfriend. When the band struck up some dance numbers Charlie was the first on the dance floor with Jane and the two of them did a very fancy fox trot that they had clearly been working on for weeks.

Will offered Lizzy his hand with a questioning look and she smiled and allowed him to lead her to the dance floor. Though Lizzy hadn't had anything like dance lessons in her life, Will was an excellent leader and she followed him easily.

Lizzy was heady from champagne and dancing, and when she looked up at Will she found him staring down at her with an intensity that she could feel in her bones. "Will," was all she could say and in response he leaned down and kissed her right in the middle of the dance floor. Somewhere in the distance she thought she heard a camera clicking, but the outside world didn't matter just at that moment.

When she pulled her head back she looked at him in wonder. They had stopped dancing and she took a step back from him.

"I'm sorry," he said with a husky voice. "I couldn't help myself."

Lizzy nodded and took his hand before pulling him off of the dance floor and out of the ballroom.

There was a hallway near the restrooms that was off limits to guests and she pulled him into it. "You kissed me," Lizzy said still a bit dazed.

"I did," Will said leaning in towards her again. Lizzy met him in the middle and kissed him back with all of the pent up passion she had been feeling for days.

When they parted again they were both panting. "I just wanted to verify," she said before diving at him again.

**Will awoke the next day in what he recognized as Lizzy's bed. **He looked to the space beside him and found Lizzy snuggled under her comforter wearing what appeared to be nothing. He lay back on the pillow and allowed the memories of the previous night to return like a rush of waves at high tide. Slowly but surely he remembered everything from the first kiss to the act itself. He had restrained himself for so long. The champagne, the dancing, even the smell of her had pushed him over the edge. Succumbing to temptation, however had not been the wisest course of action and, though he didn't regret his actions, he couldn't think well of himself. Lizzy began to stir next to him and he decided to leave as soon as possible before he succumbed again.

"Morning," she mumbled in a husky voice that caused a stirring in his gut.

"Good morning," he replied. Her eyes opened and he could feel her scrutinize him as he steadfastly avoided her gaze.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he said as he pulled his pants on.

"Okay," she said before pushing back the covers and standing before him. Completely naked. He couldn't help it. He looked. He looked a lot. "What's wrong?"

Faced with her nude figure and her direct question he blurted out, "This was a mistake."

She pulled his face up to hers and forced him to make eye contact. "A mistake?"

He could hear the anger in her voice, but she was keeping her temper in check.

He nodded his head in answer to her question and she dropped her hand allowing him to avoid her gaze again. Lizzy grabbed a robe hanging on her closet door and covered herself, ending his torture.

"I'm getting in the shower," she said coldly. "I would prefer it if you weren't here when I got out." The bathroom door slammed loudly behind her.

He'd really done it this time.

**Lizzy lost her composure in the shower as she remembered what an amazing night she'd had. **To wake up feeling happy and fulfilled and then to hear that it had been a mistake was devastating. She hadn't cried this hard since her dog had died in high school. She sat in the bathtub while the shower head streamed steaming hot water over her and gave in to the wracking sobs that weeks of emotional anguish had brought on.

After indulging in self-pity for a good half hour, Lizzy climbed out of the shower and wandered out to the living room to see if he had left. Finding her home empty caused the pain in her chest to worsen and her eye was caught by the blinking light of her answering machine. She hit the play button and Jane's voice filled the apartment. She was in tears.

_Lizzy, I told him I loved him and now he's gone! He left this morning for DC and I don't know when I'm going to see him again._

Lizzy was already on her way to her closet when the message was done and within a matter of moments she was on her way to her sister's house.

_**Author's Note: **_**So, yeah. You basically owe this chapter to reviewer janashe who shamed me into getting this done. I have no excuses for you, I'm tired of making them, you're tired of hearing them, but I have apologies and gratitude. I also have a correction. I just realized that I placed the Netherfield Ball at the end of June in Chapter 6, but then magically placed it at the end of July in Chapter 7. I'm re-posting Chapter 6 with the correct date, because it seemed the easiest way. So we have Will and Lizzy headed for the same location around the same time. Sorry for any confusion that may have caused. Currently, I'm readying an original novel I wrote to be sent to a publisher, I'm re-writing my first fanfiction, Fifth Avenue Heartache, as a novel, and I'm trying to keep up with Lizzy and Will here. It's a lot, but I owe you guys, so I hope you enjoyed it.**


	10. Recess

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. I, however, own the copyrights on this derivative work. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. My page breaks are indicated by **Bold type**.

"**He's gone!"** Jane whimpered as Lizzy stroked her hair.

"He's coming back," Lizzy assured her as tears began to fall down Jane's face again.

Jane swallowed hard and looked at her sister. Lizzy was also shedding tears and Jane tried to stem the tide of her own tears. Sitting up she took a deep shuddering breath and leaned against the headboard of her bed. "Why did I say it?"

Lizzy didn't answer the rhetorical question. Instead, she asked, "Did he say why he was going?"

"Only that he had some very important business to take care of."

"Did he say when he was returning?"

Jane shook her head and blinked rapidly hoping to dispel the tears. "He doesn't know."

"Did he say he loves you?"

The tears couldn't be stopped this time. "No. He didn't," her voice caught and Lizzy caught her up in a tight hug. "Why am I always so stupid with men?"

"You are _not_ stupid with men!" Lizzy said with more conviction than she felt. "We all thought he was crazy about you."

"I probably could have rationalized it before I got Caroline's text earlier."

Lizzy didn't even have to ask before Jane's cell phone appeared in front her with the text already queued up. _Janie, I just wanted to let you know that I'm following Charles to DC today with Will and from there I'm going to talk him into visiting NY. He has so many friends there that he's been neglecting and it's time for him to return to society. I'm also super excited to see Will's little sister Georgie while we're in Maryland. She's such a doll and she always had a huge crush on Charles when she was younger. Keep in touch. xoxo Caro._

"He's not on a vacation, he's on a business trip," Lizzy handed the phone back to Jane and tried to calm down.

"Well, he does love New York. He was always talking about taking me there someday."

"Just give it time. He'll be back someday. And, depending on how you feel, you can either welcome him home with open arms or with a cold shoulder."

Jane nodded and shut her eyes. Her normally porcelain skin showed telltale signs of exhaustion and sadness, blue lines under her eyes and red streaks where tears had fallen.

"Why don't you lie down and try to get some sleep."

"I will," Jane said scooting down into a lying position. "Why is it so quiet? Where's Mom?"

"She took Lydia to Universal Studios," Lizzy said. "I happened to have some passes."

"Thanks Lizzy. I suppose I'll have to tell her sometime."

"Yes, but with luck that time can be after she's gone back to Maryland. Don't worry about it. I'll do what I can," Lizzy soothed as she left the room.

Lizzy couldn't fathom how Charlie could do this to her sister. Just days ago he had seemed to adore her, but to leave without returning her declaration was so harsh. It didn't fit his character at all. She decided it was time to figure out what was wrong with Charlie. Will had said he had a lot on his mind, but Jane said it was a business trip, which meant that something was wrong with Charlie's business.

She sat down at Jane's desktop and logged into her own user account. A quick Google search revealed all. Charlie's corporation was under investigation by the DOJ. This was a big deal, and suddenly the look on Charlie's face at the Ball made sense. How do you pretend that everything is fine when everyone in the room most likely knows your troubles and is, quite possibly, hoping to see you fall on your face for a bit of schadenfreude? Lizzy wondered if this was the reason he had left without returning Jane's sentiments. He was probably distracted while he was saying his goodbyes. She wondered if it would help Jane to know any of this. Conversely, if he simply didn't love her and had no intention of returning to her, would it keep her hopes up when all hope was lost?

Lizzy was at a loss as to how to handle this one.

The hardest part had been explaining Jane's solitude to her mother.

"What do you mean _he's gone_?" Mrs. Bennet had raged.

"His company is under fire by the government right now and he had to go to Washington, DC, to oversee the investigation."

"Well, isn't that legal mumbo jumbo your job?" Mrs. Bennet's face had turned red. Lizzy had actually been worried about her. "You defended him in that stupid contract case, aren't you supposed to help him with this? Take Jane and go help him!" She was shouting now and Jane actually wandered out of her room to find out what was going on.

"Mom, this is not my area of expertise. I wouldn't have the first idea how to handle it and if we did go there we'd only be in the way."

"Well, she'll come home with Lydia and I, then. DC isn't so far from Glen Burnie, she can go site seeing!"

"Mom, I have a business here, I can't just – ˮ

"You can and you will." Mrs. Bennet crossed her arms and stared at her eldest daughter.

Jane's face took on a look of confusion and hurt. Lizzy knew it would be humiliating for her to wander around the nation's capital in the hopes of running into the man who hadn't returned her declaration of love.

"Mom," Lizzy said quietly, but fiercely, "DC is a big place and Charlie's probably very busy. The chances of running into him are – ˮ

"Lizzy, aren't you leaving for Maryland on Thursday?"

"Yes, but I've promised to stay with Charlotte in Salisbury. I have no plans to go to DC."

"Why aren't you helping me with this instead of fighting me?" Mrs. Bennet had a vein in her forehead that was visible and Lizzy glanced at Jane.

"Look Mom," she pointed her mother's gaze to her eldest child standing in the hallway with tears running down her face.

"Don't make me go to DC, Mom," Jane said between sobs.

"Oh Janey," Mrs. Bennet's husband-hunting strategies fell by the wayside as she rushed to comfort her daughter. She led Jane back into her bedroom and Lizzy went back to her computer. She quickly typed up an email to Charlotte inquiring whether or not Jane would be welcome with her for the week.

Charlotte's reply was nearly instantaneous and affirmative. Lizzy went to Jane's bedroom to propose her idea.

"Jane? Would you like to visit Charlotte with me for a week? You could have Cindy run the business for that short time and we won't go anywhere near DC. I promise."

"It would be good for you to get away for a bit, sweetheart," their mother said softly.

Jane nodded in defeat and closed her eyes to attempt sleep. Mrs. Bennet stood up and led Lizzy out of the room, shutting the door softly behind her.

"At least take her to the Smithsonian if she'll agree to. She always loved that place."

"I will, Mom."

"Lydia and I have to go home tomorrow. Darrow has been with the neighbors this whole time," Mrs. Bennet said talking about the family dog.

"We'll come by to see you sometime next week," Lizzy said as she went back to the computer to update Charlotte.

**Jane and Lizzy stepped out into the sunshine at BWI airport**. Standing outside of a VW Passat was Charlotte Collins holding a sign that read "Bennet" and looking extremely happy to see her friends. Lizzy ran to meet her and the two hugged like they had been separated years and not mere months. Lizzy, Jane, and Charlotte had actually met at the University of Maryland when Lizzy and Charlotte were both pre-law English majors working at the writing center. Lizzy's choice in law school had been influenced in large part by Jane's desire to migrate south to open her future business and Charlotte's decision to attend Barry. Charlotte had confessed to Lizzy in the spring of their senior year, that she was not the best standardized test taker and that she had barely made the SAT scores to get into Maryland in the first place. In the end, her LSAT scores had not been very high and she had had very few options. Barry University had just opened a small law school in Orlando and both women decided that that was where they would end up.

Lizzy never regretted her decision. She loved her job and the practice she had entered into and was looking forward to someday starting her own practice when she felt she had learned all she could at Gardner and Klein. She had always thought that she and Charlotte would start a firm together, but now as she hugged her glowingly happy friend, she had to push those thoughts away. She had promised Jane and herself on the plane that she wouldn't say or do anything to make Charlotte think that Lizzy wasn't happy for her.

"I hope your flight was okay," Charlotte said as she hugged Jane.

"It was fine," Jane said as the moved around to put their luggage in the trunk of the car.

"You look great, Char," Lizzy said as she climbed into the passenger seat. "Marriage agrees with you."

"I can honestly say that I never knew how much I would enjoy being a housewife until it was offered to me! My parents had been so anxious for me to be a lawyer that I hadn't ever really thought about what I wanted."

"I thought you were going to take the Maryland bar?" Lizzy tried not to let any judgment into her voice.

"Oh I will, in February, but I'm not going to litigate. I've got a corporate position lined up and you don't have to be barred here to do corporate work."

"Wow, that's great!"

"Bill wants me to stay at home and raise the kids, but I figured until we have kids there's no need for me to sit around all day."

"Great!" Lizzy could hear her voice getting more and more forced and willed Jane to change the subject soon.

"Thank you for letting me come with Lizzy," Jane said from the backseat.

Lizzy knew she loved her sister for a reason.

"We're glad to have you!" Charlotte's voice also sounded a bit forced.

"How has married life been treating you?" Jane asked.

"Oh it's wonderful! Bill and I have been so busy furnishing our house and just getting to know each other. We've been in a perpetual honeymoon." Lizzy didn't really buy a single thing coming out of Charlotte's mouth, but she didn't give away any of her doubts and misgivings.

Charlotte prattled on for quite some time about life in Salisbury and the great neighborhood they lived in and the school Bill taught in. Lizzy was able to nod and murmur in the appropriate places when all the while she was thinking about the subtext of Charlotte's words.

Lizzy knew that Charlotte hadn't loved her work as Lizzy loved it, but she'd never really thought that she'd give it up in the blink of an eye because a more attractive option had come along. Charlotte had worked hard to get to where she was and Lizzy wasn't the type of person to throw away a career for a man. But, if what Charlotte said now was true, she had jumped at the first opportunity to get out of her line of work and, while the idea of corporate law bored Lizzy to tears, maybe that's what Charlotte needed: something to do until she had babies.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to have less stress and more babies. Lizzy did not begrudge Charlotte that. The hardest thing for Lizzy to digest was how quickly and severely Charlotte had veered off of the course she and Lizzy had been on for so long. The two of them had been side by side on their career paths since they met sophomore year and, after all these years, for one of them to go down this dark and unknown path towards uncertainty and…babies. Lizzy could only smile and wish Charlotte luck. She was going to need it to spend the rest of her life with Bill Collins.

Two hours later they pulled up in front of a little bungalow snuggled in the middle of a typical suburban neighborhood and Bill was rushing down the stairs to greet them.

"Welcome Bennets, welcome!" he cried a bit melodramatically as he greeted the sisters. "Here let me take that," he grabbed Jane's bag from her hands and turned back to the house leaving Lizzy to carry her own bag. "Come in, come in," he threw the door open wide and stood aside to allow them to enter.

The house was very stylishly decorated with comfortable looking furniture arranged artfully on a Persian rug on beautiful hardwood floors. The whole house was decorated in a way that made Lizzy worry about touching the furniture lest she get it dirty. She and Jane had their own rooms with a shared bathroom between them, so they both set about unpacking and changing for dinner. The four of them were going out to dinner and Bill had encouraged them to change into something "more appropriate."

"It's summer, isn't it? Bill doesn't have to work," Lizzy frowned in the mirror while she touched up her makeup.

"Probably," Jane said as she brushed out her hair and styled it.

"He'll probably want to hang out with us the whole time."

"So?"

"You've never had to spend much time with him, have you? He's basically the most pompous ass I've ever met."

"Remember that you're here for Charlotte," Jane reminded her.

"I know," Lizzy sighed as she buttoned her blouse up. "Let's get this over with."

"**So then Mrs. de Bourgh said that we simply had to include Chaucer in our curriculum and that there was no professor better suited than me to handle it so I've taken on that class now."** Bill Collins hadn't truly stopped talking all night, except when he ate and the bites were so small and eaten so fast that there wasn't actually time for the ladies to say anything of substance to each other.

Because Bill's bites were so small the dinner stretched out for hours and everyone else had been finished with their meals for quite some time while he contemplated the dessert menu. Lizzy prayed that he would decide not to order dessert and was so relieved that he asked for the check instead that she blurted out an offer to pay.

Bill looked surprised, but willingly handed over the check over Charlotte's protests.

"It's the least we can do to repay your hospitality," Lizzy said as she placed her credit card with the bill.

"And how is your relationship with Mr. Darcy going, Elizabeth," the smug look on Bill's face told Lizzy that he knew something.

"It's complicated, Bill," she said coldly.

"Mr. Darcy, Catherine de Bourgh's nephew?" Charlotte asked.

"Yes," Lizzy said.

"He's going to be my new boss," Charlotte said with a smile. "Mrs. de Bourgh got me an interview with them. She's on the board at Darcy Corporations."

"I wonder if we'll see him while we're here," Jane wondered.

"Yes, we've been invited to a party at Mrs. de Bourgh's and he's coming because he's in town," Bill said as they all stood and gathered their things.

"We're all invited? Jane and me too? Because we don't have to – ˮ

"Of course you're invited. Two more people won't make a bit of difference to her and she said as much when I told her you would be staying with us. The party is on Saturday, so you'll probably want to go shopping with Charlotte tomorrow for an appropriate dress."

"Great," Lizzy said as the climbed into the car.

**Saturday night rolled** around and Lizzy examined herself in the mirror and smoothed down the shiny sapphire blue satin dress she was wearing. As much as she hated shopping she had been extremely nervous about this party and was desperate to find the right dress. This sleeveless cocktail dress showed off her slim waist, stopped at the knee, and made the color of her eyes pop. Jane had not had the impetus to try as hard and had landed on a traditional black cocktail dress that looked spectacular, but wouldn't stand out in the crowd.

Charlotte's choice of a cream A-line dress with a plum-colored net overlay and plum beads artfully scattered was demur and befitting the wife of a professor. She was equally as nervous as Lizzy, but mainly because she would be meeting Bill's colleagues tonight. The four of them gathered in the living room, Bill in his suit, and they headed out.

Catherine de Bourgh, aside from being the formidable aunt to William Darcy, was the provost in charge of Salisbury State University, a smallish state school located on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Bill enjoyed nothing more than explaining to the ladies what a provost was and why Mrs. de Bourgh was so interesting. He also prepared them for their evening by describing in great detail the style and décor of Mrs. de Bourgh's home and how much certain pieces of furniture cost and how expensive it had been to have the front door shipped over from France, etc. Lizzy didn't dare to ask how he knew all of these things, because each inquiry to Bill launched a new explanation and no one, not even Charlotte, seemed inclined to spark one of those.

When they pulled onto the street of Mrs. de Bourgh's house, Bill started his very last explanation.

"Mrs. de Bourgh is a widow and lives with her daughter and her daughter's nurse. Anne de Bourgh is a writer and is quite frail from having had leukemia as a child. Mrs. de Bourgh allows her to have her career, but insists that she live at home and have a nurse at all times to meet all of her needs."

"How old is Anne de Bourgh?" Lizzy whispered to Jane.

"Oh! Anne de Bourgh who writes those vampire novels?" Jane asked.

"Yes, the very one! I'm so glad you know of her Jane. Mrs. de Bourgh was very distressed at the subject matter of Anne's novels, but she allows it because it makes her daughter happy and she always says how lucky she is to have had Anne around for so long."

"She's in her 30s," Jane whispered to Lizzy.

Lizzy, who had escaped her mother's overbearing clutches at the age of 21, shuddered at the idea of being _allowed_ to have a career and being forced to live at home.

The street outside of the de Bourghs' home was crowded with cars and Bill maneuvered up a sweeping drive to a valet stand. As they climbed out of the car, Bill handed the keys to the valet and escorted his wife into the party with Lizzy and Jane trailing behind.

Jane followed Bill and Charlotte into the house in search of Mrs. de Bourgh while Lizzy searched as un-obviously as she could for Will Darcy. She sighed with relief when she couldn't see him anywhere and hurried to catch up with Jane. Bill introduced her to Mrs. de Bourgh and she shook the older woman's hand.

"Lizzy?" said a deep voice off to her side.

She turned her head to find Will Darcy standing next to a thin woman sitting in an elegant Chippendale chair.

"Do you know this woman?" Mrs. de Bourgh asked him.

"She's my boss," he smiled at her and she had to stop herself from smiling back. She did not come here to be nice to him.

"You're boss! Well, you are most welcome Elizabeth Bennet."

"Thank you, Mrs. de Bourgh."

"Fitzwilliam, fetch me a fresh drink, will you? And get one for the Misses Bennet."

Darcy nodded and took the glass from Mrs. de Bourgh's outstretched hand before heading to the bar.

Bill filled the silence with his thanks and praise and all kinds of ass kissing while Anne de Bourgh sat listlessly off to the side making no real attempts to endear herself to the newcomers, although she had greeted Charlotte pleasantly enough.

When Will returned with three glasses he handed the first one to Jane who sipped at it gratefully and then handed one to his aunt. As he was handing the last glass to Lizzy she whispered the word "Fitzwilliam?" under her breath.

"Family name," he whispered back.

"Oh I'm using it," she said as she turned to examine some artwork on the wall over his head.

"I've had it legally changed," he said turning to look at the same piece.

"I don't care," she sing-songed.

"What are you talking about, Fitzwilliam?" Mrs. de Bourgh called over to them.

"I was just admiring your Monet," Lizzy said waving her glass at the framed artwork.

"I acquired it at the estate sale of a Baron," she said loftily before returning to her conversation with Charlotte.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here," Will said quietly. "Is Jane all right? She looks under the weather."

"She's fine," Lizzy said a bit defensively. "We're both fine."

"Right," Will said. He had forgotten that she might not be fine. "I'm really – ˮ

"No, don't even talk about it." Lizzy shut her mouth and stared intently at the painting without another word.

Quickly downing her drink, Lizzy handed the glass back to Will and excused herself. She had no idea where she was going, but she needed to be away from him. Every muscle in her body longed to reach out for him. She could still remember the feel of his lips and she needed to put distance between them.

**Will wanted to follow her, but Jane held him back**. "She needs space," Jane said sadly.

"I know, I just…I was so stupid."

"Yeah, you were," Jane said walking over to Anne de Bourgh's seat to introduce herself.

Will watched her sit down and begin a conversation about Anne's books and wondered what happened to make Jane sad. When Will had left Charlie two days ago to spend the weekend with his aunt, Charlie had been confident that he and Jane would marry some day and he would focus on that when the antitrust suit had been taken care of. But Jane did not look like a woman who was certain about the future of her relationship. And why, if she was in the area, had she not gone to see Charlie? As far as he knew, Charlie didn't know that Jane was in town. It was very confusing. He wished he could say something to her, to either Bennet sister, but they both seemed to be fastidiously avoiding him.

Will handed Lizzy's empty glass to a passing waiter and wandered off into the house. He tried to convince himself that he wasn't searching for Lizzy, but he really was. She had wandered into the dining room and had struck up a conversation with one of the English Professors from his aunt's college. There was a buffet table set up in the room so he busied himself with a plate while he listened to the discussion on Anthony Burgess.

When that conversation had petered out and the professor had walked off in search of his wife, she was standing alone on the other side of a huge buffet from him.

"I was an idiot," Will said with as much feeling as he could. "I'm so sorry."

"Are you?"

"Yes! I panicked. I didn't know what I was doing."

"You did. You knew that what we did was wrong. You over reacted."

"I did. I should have told you, but instead I ran away."

"I'm going to have you assigned to a new attorney," Lizzy said quietly.

"Why?" he asked, hardly daring to hope.

"Because it's too hard," she said looking down at the floor. "I can't work with you anymore."

"Then…if we wanted to be together, it would be okay."

"No. We'll still be working in the same office together. I still don't think it would be a good idea." She played with the ring on her right hand.

"Lizzy, what do you want?" She opened her mouth, but he stopped her. "No, don't tell me what you think is or isn't a good idea. Tell me what _you_ want!"

"I want you," she said quietly.


	11. Objection Overruled

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. I, however, own the copyrights on this derivative work. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. My page breaks are indicated by **Bold type**.

"**What?" Will asked holding his breath. **

"I want you," she repeated a bit louder. A smile broke out on his face and he saw hers reflect it back. Without thinking, he charged towards her only to be stopped by the long buffet table laden with finger foods. He looked down in confusion and then back up at her. He couldn't help but notice that she had moved reflexively backwards. Away from him.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he began walking the perimeter of the buffet table.

"Just because I want you doesn't mean I can have you." Was he imagining the quaver in her voice? "I won't have you throw away your career for me," she said as she watched him walking like a prey watches a predator.

"It's too late, Lizzy. I'm already yours." He stopped a few feet away from her attempting to gauge her reaction.

"But – ˮ

"I'll find a different job," he said.

"You'll find a different job?"

He nodded. She stood frozen in thought; he could see the wheels turning in her head. When she looked up at him her perfect, beautiful smile indicated that the tears falling down her cheeks were happy tears.

They both moved at the same time and met each other in an embrace that made the word passionate ashamed of itself. This embrace spoke of need, desire, hunger, and a longing finally and blissfully fulfilled. Will began to worry that he should rein it in before they became indecent right there in the dining room when,

"Fitzwilliam!" The imperious voice of his aunt boomed across the cavernous room, echoing off of the vaulted ceilings.

The two lovers broke apart like shrapnel and Lizzy fixed her gaze on the nearest work of art while Will looked his aunt defiantly in the eye. "Yes Aunt Catherine?"

"You men never think anything is wrong with your behavior, you're all instincts and hormones, but _you_ Ms. Bennet. I expected better of you! As a woman of power, you would throw your career away on an intern? Worst of all! Fitzwilliam Darcy, you are the heir of the Darcy Legacy! You are a man of impeccable breeding and years of careful tutelage and guidance and _this_ is who you have decided to bring into the family? This nobody from a nothing law firm in a backwater like _Orlando_. Who is her family? What are her qualifications? You were raised better than this!" Mrs. de Bourgh practically spat the last sentence on the floor.

"I'd better go," Lizzy said attempting to slink out of the nearest door, but Will grabbed her hand and pulled her forward to stand with him. He didn't drop her hand.

"This woman is a talented and smart lawyer, who has more natural grace and manners then you, apparently! What does breeding matter these days? And years of tutelage? What did I learn? How to walk around with a giant pole up my ass? I'm the happiest I've been since Mom and Dad died and I found that happiness in a 'backwater' called Orlando, with this woman whose ancestors may not have come to America on the Mayflower! And for your information, Ms. Bennet would not have given in to me if I hadn't assured her that I would seek employment elsewhere because she has impeccable ethics!" He was panting as his words ran out and he looked at Lizzy who was smiling at him.

"Mrs. de Bourgh, I do not have to justify myself to you, but I can assure you that I would never jeopardize my or Will's career. Say what you will about my family, but it is the 21st century. Perhaps you'd like to join us." Will squeezed Lizzy's hand, because he could feel it trembling, though she had kept it out of her voice.

"I am well aware of the century we are in, Ms. Bennet. I would like you and your sister to remove yourselves and you, Fitzwilliam, will go upstairs and think about your actions. And your words!"

"Aunt Catherine, I am, in fact, 28 years of age and completely independent. Since you have so rudely ordered Lizzy and Jane out of your home, I will drive them back to the Collins' house and then return to my own home. Please give my compliments to the chef."

**Will tightened his grip on Lizzy's hand and pulled her out of the room to find Jane. **They found her deep in conversation with Anne de Bourgh where they had left her and there was a look of confusion on her face when she saw them enter the room holding hands. Lizzy glanced at Charlotte who spied them from her conversation with Bill and another man. The wry smile on Charlotte's face made Lizzy grin back and Will came to a halt in front of Jane and Anne.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but we must leave," Will said.

"We?" Jane asked.

"Will is taking and you and I back to Char's house," Lizzy said with a growing smile on her face.

"I don't understand," Jane said.

Charlotte excused herself from her conversation to join them. "What's going on?"

"Mrs. de Bourgh has requested that Jane and I leave the premises and Will has kindly offered to take us back to your house."

"You're kidding!"

"I'll tell you about it when you get home Charlotte," Lizzy whispered to her.

"What did you do?" Jane asked standing up.

"I'll tell you on the way home," Lizzy said from behind clenched teeth.

"She caught you, huh?" Anne grinned at her cousin. Will nodded and Anne's laughter tinkled through the hushed conversation of the room. "Brilliant. Mind if I use this in my next novel?"

"Of course, Annie. What is my life, except fodder for your canon?"

"It was so nice to meet you Ms. de Bourgh," Jane said shaking the woman's hand.

"Please call me Anne. It was a pleasure to meet you."

"I hope we can talk again sometime," Jane said as they left the room. "I feel terrible leaving a party without saying goodbye to the hostess."

"I think Emily Post would agree that it's okay to leave without saying goodbye to the hostess when the hostess has ordered you to leave for no reason at all. Other than being my sister." Lizzy reasoned.

"I can't wait to find out what's going on," Jane said grumpily as they left the house by a back door.

Will walked them down to a garage and they climbed into his little sports coupe that barely seated three comfortably.

"Okay, spill," Jane said as Will began driving.

"First tell me where I'm going," Will said as they approached an intersection.

Lizzy entered the address into his GPS before turning to Jane. "Catherine caught us making out in the dining room."

"You were making out? Does that mean…"

"If Lizzy consents I want her to be my girlfriend," Will said with a goofy grin.

"I'm pretty sure some kind of pin is supposed to be involved when you ask a girl to go steady," Lizzy teased.

"Wait, how long has this been going on?" Jane asked angrily. Lizzy realized that the sister with whom she discussed everything had been in the dark the past month and now she had a lot to let Jane in on.

"I think it started during the hurricane," Will said thoughtfully.

"I knew it!" Jane said triumphant.

"You knew what?" Lizzy asked looking at Will.

"She caught us spooning on the couch that morning in Charlie's living room."

"We were spooning?" It was Lizzy's turn to be confused.

"It was accidental, but I suppose subconsciously…"

"Told you so," Jane sing-songed at them.

"You could have told me so," Lizzy grumbled.

"Anyway, Will has had feelings for you since the Hurricane, but Lizzy, you never gave me any indication that you returned them."

"I didn't know myself until that night I went out with Bill."

"What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?"

Lizzy laughed, "Will came over to my place the next night to help me make Bill go away. He pretended to be my boyfriend."

"Aw!" Jane cooed. Lizzy was happy that she was able to laugh and especially happy that the mention of Charlie hadn't seemed to affect her.

"But," Will interjected.

"But he was my intern, so we couldn't…"

"Oh, but I wanted to," he said grinning at her.

"He _was_ your intern?" Jane asked pointedly.

"Yes, he's agreed to seek employment elsewhere."

"So you celebrated by making out?" Jane was openly laughing at them now.

"Yup!" Lizzy confirmed.

"Well, I'm glad you two could finally be together. Honestly, the sexual tension was beginning to rub off on the rest of us."

Will took Lizzy's hand in his and kissed it. Lizzy glanced back at her sister and saw that the joy had left her eyes and tears were slipping down her face as she stared out of the window. She saw Will glance at his rearview mirror.

"Are you okay Jane?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said as she quickly wiped at her face with the back of her hand.

"Have you spoken to Charlie lately?" Lizzy squeezed his hand and shook her head discreetly when he glanced at her.

"He hasn't called since he left."

"Oh, well, I know he's been really busy since he arrived. Sometimes he doesn't leave the office until midnight."

"Oh," Jane said blandly.

"Where is your house Will?" Lizzy said taking his focus off of Jane.

"I live in Annapolis," he said as he maneuvered the car into the Collins' driveway.

"That's hours away, why don't you stay here tonight and go home in the morning?" Lizzy tried to sound casual.

"You don't think the Collins will mind?" he asked with a wicked grin.

"I don't care," she said.

"Could I get out while you two decide this?" Jane asked from the back seat.

"Sorry," Lizzy said as she got out of the car. Will got out too and they watched Jane walk up to the house and open the door with the spare key Charlotte had given them when they arrived.

"What happened to her?" Will asked when they were alone.

"She told Charlie that she loved him at the Ball and he didn't reciprocate. And then he left for DC with no indication of when he would be back or anything."

"Oh man, poor Jane. Look, I wasn't kidding when I said he had a lot on his mind."

"I know," Lizzy said putting her hands on his chest as they leaned against his car. "I saw the article about the DOJ investigation. I wasn't sure whether or not to tell Jane about it because I wasn't sure any longer if Charlie loved her or not. If he didn't, I was getting her hopes up for nothing."

"He does," Will said. "He's been talking about proposing as soon as the antitrust thing blows over."

"Proposing? But why hasn't he even called her since he left?"

"She could call him," he said defensively.

"Will, she thinks he dumped her. That's he not coming back for her."

"Oh. Well, then we need to tell her that he loves her."

Lizzy sighed. "I'm not sure it's going to mean anything coming from us. She needs to see him again."

"He's under a lot of pressure. He's barely slept since he came up here."

"My mom told me to take Jane to the Smithsonian while we're up here. It was always her favorite place when we were kids. Maybe we could arrange an accidental meeting?"

Will smiled at her. "I like the way you think."

"Call Charlie and arrange to have lunch with him tomorrow and we'll talk Jane into going to the Smithsonian with us tomorrow."

"I'll call him right now," he pulled his phone out of his pocket and Lizzy went into the house.

"Jane," Lizzy called as she walked back to the bedrooms. She stopped outside of Jane's door and heard the telltale signs crying. "Can I come in, Janey?"

"Yes," was the muffled reply. No matter how upset she was, Jane would never turn her sister away.

Lizzy opened the door and found her sister lying in bed staring at the ceiling with tears running down into her ears. She went and sat down on the bed with her sister and brushed the tears off of her face. "You'll get an ear infection this way."

"That's an old wives' tale," Jane said mutinously.

"I'm sorry, Jane."

"Don't apologize for being happy. I'm happy for you."

"I know you are, but I'm still sorry." Jane was silent except for a few sniffles, so Lizzy plowed on. "You know what would make you feel better?"

"What?"

"The Natural History museum."

"No," Jane said adamantly.

"It's your favorite place in the whole world."

"Yes, and it's located in my least favorite city in the whole world."

"The Natural History museum is not anywhere near the Department of Justice, there's no chance of running into Charlie," Lizzy felt horrible lying to her sister, but if what Will said was true then it was worth it.

Jane was quiet, thinking. Lizzy knew that pushing her would produce the opposite effect and waiting patiently for her to cave.

"Fine," she said quietly.

"Good. I think it will do you a world of good to look at gross skeletons," Lizzy smiled for her.

"They're not gross, they're awesome," Jane retorted.

"There's my Jane," Lizzy stood up and headed to the door. "We'll leave early tomorrow morning."

"Okay."

She met Will in the living room and smiled for him. He stood up to embrace her.

"We're going to the natural history museum tomorrow."

"Charlie is meeting me for lunch at a nearby restaurant."

"Good," she said before leaning up and kissing him lightly on the lips. "Have you made a decision about tonight?"

"Well, if we're going to DC tomorrow it doesn't make any sense for me to go all the way back to Annapolis just to come all the way back here at the crack of dawn."

"No, the best plan is for you to spend the night," Lizzy smiled shyly.

"It really is," he said as he leaned down and kissed her passionately.

"Lizzy?" Charlotte and Bill came in the front door and, though Charlotte's smile was big and warm, Bill had a strong look of disapproval on his face.

"Hello Mr. Darcy," Charlotte said.

"Mrs. Collins," he replied. "Mr. Collins."

Bill appeared too deranged to speak at the moment so Lizzy did what she did best and plowed ahead.

"Would it be all right if Will spent the night here, Char? We're going to the Smithsonian in the morning and it's an awful lot of trouble to go all the way back to Annapolis," Lizzy said in one quick breath.

"Absolutely," Charlotte said with a warm smile over her husband's attempts to talk. "Would anyone like coffee?"

"I'd love a cup," Will said.

"Lizzie, would you mind helping me?" Charlotte asked her friend pointedly. Lizzy smiled at Will and followed Charlotte into the kitchen.

**Will looked at Bill Collins silently.** The man appeared to be too confused for words. "How long have you worked with my aunt?" he asked attempting to break the silence.

"Er, a couple of years. I met her the year I was writing my dissertation and she hired me the next summer."

"So you've got a Ph.D.?"

"Yes, from Brown."

"Excellent," he said.

"Your aunt informs me that you're attending a fourth tier law school in Orlando?" The sneer in Bill's voice was audible and Will attempted to control a surge of rage that had risen in him suddenly.

"Yes, well, certain sacrifices had to be made for family," he said cryptically.

"Oh, that's right, you allowed Ms. Georgiana to attend a state school down there."

"I didn't 'allow' her anything. She chose to go there and I fully supported her."

"Interesting," Bill Collins yawned comically and stood up. "Tell Charlotte that I'm tired and won't partake of any coffee."

"I will," he said as he watched the man wander back to his bedroom.

Charlotte and Lizzy walked back into the living room just then, with no coffee. Charlotte had a goofy grin on her face and Will could only smile.

"We're out of coffee, I totally forgot," Charlotte said as she and Lizzy sat down. "Where's Bill?"

"He's tired and won't partake of any coffee," Will announced.

"Oh, well, I guess I'd better go to bed. Good night you two."

Will and Lizzy watched Charlotte head to her room and then grinned stupidly at each other.

"It's awfully late," Lizzy said as she genuinely yawned.

"It's not even 10 o'clock," he said checking his watch.

"I'm not sure if you're aware, but it is exhausting dealing with your aunt."

"Ah yes, that is true."

"Look, I think we should figure out how to handle this," Lizzy said sitting down next to Will. He automatically put his arm around her and she leaned into him.

"Handle us?"

"Yes, at work, I mean. I think we should come clean to Mr. Gardiner so he can write you a letter of recommendation."

"I'll do it," he said.

"If we do it together it won't seem so seedy," she said yawning again.

"Okay, we'll go see Mr. Gardiner the moment we're back in Orlando. Except that I wasn't supposed to be there for several weeks."

"Right, you're away for a whole month," she pouted.

"I'm trying to tie up strings with my father's business before I hand it over to new management."

"What do you mean?" Lizzy sat up and looked at him.

"I'm saying that I'm selling my shares and becoming a lawyer. It's what I've always wanted."

"Good for you," she said.

"Unfortunately, there's a lot more to it, because it's my family's name and all that, so there are a lot of contracts to go over and licensing agreements."

"Do you need help?"

"No," he said laughing. "You're not helping me with contracts on your vacation."

"Pretty please?" she laughed.

"Absolutely not. Come on, let's get to bed. It's going to be an early start in the morning."

"Oh yes, let's do that," Lizzy laughed wickedly and Will rolled his eyes at her before following her to her room.

**Waking up with Will and knowing he wasn't about to rush off on her had been a very pleasant experience. **She had stretched and rolled into his arms as though she had been doing it her entire life. When they finally managed to drag themselves out of bed, they had to pretend like they weren't the happiest people on earth so that Jane wouldn't be upset. Jane had sat quietly in the backseat for the entire drive to the capitol city and Lizzy and Will had attempted to make small talk for two and a half hours.

Jane continued to remain quiet as they wandered through the museum, but Lizzy saw that the place had the appropriate effect. Lizzy could see the smile on her face, even if no one else could. Jane had always loved this place and their father had brought them nearly twice a month when they were little. Eventually, they had known what every exhibit said by heart, but it did the three of them good just to be there.

Today was no different. She had felt Will relax as well and even she was able to breathe a little easier. When lunch time rolled around they proposed heading to a little place Will knew and then going to the Air and Space Museum after. Jane agreed, silently, and the three of them headed out to a nearby restaurant. They were walking along in silence, Will and Lizzy had long ago tired of trying to fill it, when Jane suddenly stopped walking.

Lizzy looked up and saw Charlie standing in front of the restaurant.

"Jane?" he asked as a huge smile broke out on his face.

Jane looked from Lizzy's anxious face to Will's not at all surprised face and her face crumpled as she turned and fled back the way they had come.

"Jane!" Lizzy called out as she ran after her.

**Will looked at Charlie's shocked face and shook his head.** Charlie looked at Will and asked, "What's wrong? Why is she upset?"

"She thought you dumped her. She didn't think you were ever going back to Florida."

"What? I told her I had business and I didn't know how long it would take. She loves me, Will, I know she does."

"Yes, because she told you."

"Yes," Charlie said.

"And you…" Will prompted.

"Didn't," Charlie sighed. "Shit."

"Yup."

"I was so preoccupied that I didn't think…I didn't say it out loud! Dammit! I haven't even called her once in a week!"

"Yes, I'm aware."

"I was beginning to worry that I hadn't heard from her, but if she thought… I have to go talk to her."

"Let's go," Will said as they began walking.

"**You lied to me!"** Jane cried as Lizzy came upon her sitting on a bench on the National Mall.

"I know I did," Lizzy said sitting down. "Can I explain myself?"

"Whatever." It was least kind thing Jane had ever said to anyone, let alone her favorite sister.

"Charlie's company is under investigation by the Department of Justice for an anti-trust issue because of his most recent acquisition attempt. When he found out, he had to leave as soon as possible to oversee things, because you know how conscientious he is about this kind of stuff." Jane nodded and Lizzy continued. "I wasn't sure if I should tell you how preoccupied he was on the night of the ball because I wasn't sure if you should have hope or not."

"That wasn't your decision to make," Jane said angrily.

"I know, but you were in so much pain, I just…I wanted to protect you the way you always protect me," Lizzy was crying now, upset by how angry her best friend was at her. "When Will saw how sad you were he told me that Charlie was under the illusion that things were great and he was talking about taking things to the next level, except you didn't look like someone who was in a great relationship, so he told me what was going on last night and we decided the only way you would believe that Charlie was still in love with you was to hear it from him yourself."

"You two have a lot of nerve making decisions for other people," Jane said wiping her eyes. "Besides, if Charlie loves me he should have said so!"

"I do love you," he said as he and Will approached. Lizzy got up and walked over to join Will while Charlie took her place. "I'm such an idiot, I knew I loved you a long time ago and I was going to tell you at the Ball, but this stupid investigation – ˮ

"You didn't call! For a whole week!"

"I know, it's inexcusable. I know you deserve so much better and I can't apologize enough, but if it's any consolation I'm a wreck."

"Maybe," she said softly.

"I work all hours of the day and when I finally have a chance to sleep all I can think about is you. I missed you so much."

"But why didn't you call?"

Charlie had a look of agony on his face. "I was working from 6am to midnight, I didn't have a good time to call."

"Fine," Jane said in a tone that said it was not at all fine.

"Jane, I've been thinking about you a lot lately, and not being with you has made me realize how much I want and need you in my life. I'd made up my mind recently and I suppose I'll go ahead and ask." Charlie slid off of the bench and onto one knee. Lizzy gasped despite herself and Will took her hand. Charlie pulled a robin's egg blue velvet box out of his coat pocket and opened it up. The largest diamond Lizzy had ever seen in person winked at them in the sunlight. "Jane, will you marry me?"

****Author's Note** I may be addicted to cliffhangers. Sorry. =D**


	12. Voir Dire

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. I, however, own the copyrights on this derivative work. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. My page breaks are indicated by **Bold type**.

**Jane stared at Charlie for a full minute. **Lizzy realized she was holding her breath and forced herself to breathe. Will's grip on Lizzy's hand tightened and she thought he would break it if Jane didn't answer soon.

"Yes," Jane finally said. Her lip quivered a moment before her face crumpled and tears started to flow. "YES!" she sniffled as Charlie leaned in and hugged her hard. When they were done kissing Charlie wiped the tears from Jane's cheeks and Jane turned to Lizzy. "Lizzy!"

Lizzy could only nod and smile as she was feeling distinctly choked up and didn't trust herself to speak. Will had walked over to congratulate Charlie and Jane ran to Lizzy and threw her arms around her sister. "Congratulations Janie! I'm so happy for you."

"You'll be my maid of honor, won't you?" Jane asked.

"Of course I will."

"Lizzy, why don't you and I go on to the Air and Space Museum and these two can catch up over lunch," Will suggested as he rejoined her.

"That sounds perfect," Lizzy said as she waved goodbye to her sister.

"They're meeting us for dinner," Will said as they began walking.

Lizzy's stomach chose that moment to growl very loudly. She laughed and asked, "What about lunch for us?"

"I thought we could dine on astronaut ice cream."

"Sounds perfect." Lizzy glanced back one last time to see her sister gazing at her fiancé adoringly as he gazed back with a true look of love.

"**We did it," **Lizzy said as she bit into her second round of astronaut ice cream. "Actually," she chewed thoughtfully looking at him, "You did it."

"I had very little to do with it," Will said as he pushed a sandwich towards her. "Eat something with nutrients in it."

"Meh," she said as she took another bite of freeze dried ice cream. He gave her a look that brooked no argument and she put the ice cream down and picked up the sandwich.

"Good. Now, how will we celebrate this momentous occasion?" Will asked as he finished his drink.

"More freeze dried ice cream?" Will raised his eyebrows and Lizzy laughed. "I'm kidding. Aren't we meeting Jane and Charlie at the Air and Space Museum?" Just as Lizzy said that a text appeared on her phone from Jane. "Never mind," she said showing him her phone.

_Charlie and I are going back to his place. I'll see you later._

"Well then, our day is wide open."

Will and Lizzy wandered hand in hand through different museums for the rest of the day before heading to a restaurant that Lizzy was sure would require nicer attire than they were wearing, until Will discreetly slipped the waiter a wad of cash for a table in a private room.

The table was dressed with fine china and crystal and lit by candles, but there was an air of uneasiness surrounding them in that private room that neither of them seemed willing to broach.

"I feel so overdressed," Lizzy joked with nervous laughter as she took a gulp of champagne.

"You look beautiful," Will said sincerely. Lizzy looked up at him with disbelief written all over her face and he wondered how often she heard that. "I thought so since the, well, since the second moment I saw you." They both chuckled.

"Black never suited me," she said smiling genuinely for him. "It's no wonder you didn't think twice about me that night."

"Well, as it happens, I had a lot on my mind that evening. You could have walked in dressed like a stripper and I wouldn't have noticed."

"Wow," she said sipping her drink thoughtfully. "What was weighing so heavily on your mind, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I don't mind your asking, but I can't really talk about it, if that's all right with you." Will wasn't necessarily avoiding her gaze, but she could tell he was extremely uncomfortable.

"Never mind," she said. "Here's to second chances." They lifted their glasses and clinked them softly before being interrupted by the waiter coming to take their orders.

When he left them alone again, Will looked at Lizzy who was already flushed from the champagne and smiled at her. "Slow down with that stuff," he joked. "You remember what happened the last time we had champagne together."

"Yes," she smiled wickedly. "Do _you_ remember what happened the last time we had champagne together?"

"Oh," he replied, "Right. Drink up!" Lizzy couldn't help but burst out with laughter. When she settled down he took her hand on the table and rubbed it lightly with his thumb. "So, you're maid of honor, I'm best man, there are going to be a lot of questions."

"Nothing we can't handle. It's about time you start learning how to handle a witness."

"How will you handle those questions?" Will asked attempting to keep the mood light.

"We're young and you're still in school and this is new, blah, blah, blah."

"Yes," he said to his glass. "I suppose those are all good replies to such queries."

"What's wrong Will?"

Will looked surprised at the question, but then he remembered her innate ability to read people, not just witnesses. "Nothing," he lied.

"You're ready, aren't you?"

"No, not really." He wasn't a great liar and he willed himself to sound more convincing.

"It's okay if you're ready. There's nothing wrong with it, but just so you're aware, I'm not ready. Not just at the moment."

"That's fine," he said. "I'm just glad to know where we stand."

Lizzy nodded and silence fell over the table again. The tinkle of silverware was the only sound as Lizzy stared at the candlelight and played with her fork and knife. "Where do you stand on kids?" she asked into the silence.

"I want them. At least two. You?"

"Me too. Though I've always thought it might be a disservice to the world to pass on the family genes."

"Oh, but you'll have the impeccable Darcy breeding to help," he smiled before he realized the implications of his words.

Lizzy stared at him, somewhat shocked.

"Um, could we…just…forget I said that?" Will cleared his throat. Lizzy nodded and smiled.

"How 'bout them O's?" she asked bluntly.

Will laughed and said, "Look, I know it seemed like I was avoiding this relationship effortlessly, but I've wanted you since the day I saw you in your glasses."

"My glasses?" she asked in wonder.

"I may have a thing for glasses," he admitted.

"So, if I hadn't been wearing glasses that day you…"

"I would have perhaps taken a day or so to fall in love with your brilliant mind and your…other various attributes." He smiled at her and she smirked back. "My point is, I've been thinking about these things for a while now and this is the first time I've allowed myself to say them out loud. I didn't mean to make our first official date so awkward."

"It's fine, Will. I was avoiding thinking about such things because, well, they seemed so unlikely to happen. You took me by surprise."

"Yeah, perhaps we should focus on getting to know each other in slightly more trivial ways."

"That sounds nice, _Fitzwilliam_."

"I told you it's a family name!" Will groaned and looked pleadingly at her. "Seriously, please don't call me that. I have nightmares about my childhood with that name."

"Fine," Lizzy relented. "Though, I'll admit I'm dying to know what your middle name is now."

"That goes with me to my grave," Will said with a growl.

Lizzy just laughed and said, "Or until I get ahold of your license."

The evening progressed with the happy couple alternately teasing each other and revealing pieces of themselves. Lizzy learned that Will hated having money and only flaunted it on special occasions. Will learned that Lizzy missed having her father around more than anything, but nothing could tempt him to leave his new home in California, save the occasional graduation ceremony. Lizzy learned that Will adored his little sister and that he had been responsible for her for nearly half of her life as his parents had passed away several years ago. Will learned that Lizzy had been an awkward, studious teen who was mercilessly teased for being too smart.

When they were forced to leave the restaurant due to the fact that it was closing, Will drove her back to Charlotte's house where they found a note on Lizzy's pillow.

_Lizzy (and Will),_

_Charles and I agreed that it's best for me to return to Orlando while he's still so busy with this case. Also, I've got to start planning the wedding (September 29, btw, no time to lose!). There's also the matter of my business being overrun with requests since the Netherfield Ball, so I'm booked on the first flight that leaves in the morning. Thank you so much for meddling. Don't let it happen again._

_Love,_

_Jane_

_P.S. I called Mom and told her all about the engagement so she'll know why I don't go home with you. She's bringing Lydia back to Orlando before senior year starts to tour the UCF campus._

"Oh crap!" Lizzy exclaimed. "I forgot that we were going to visit my mother this week. Now I have to go alone." Lizzy handed the note to Will and though she was anxious about spending time alone with her mother, she was giddy with happiness for her sister. Everything was falling into place for Jane and nobody deserved it more.

"I'll go with you. That should keep her in line."

"Really? Even after that wretched board game night?"

"She's not so bad when she's intimidated," Will chuckled.

"Good to know," Lizzy said as she headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. When she came out she found Will waiting for her on the edge of the bed. She walked over to him and he stood up to meet her and they kissed slowly and passionately like two people who have all the time in the world. Cautiously, Will peeled away her clothes as Lizzy delicately undressed him and they became reacquainted with each other slowly, but surely.

**Lizzy stood before the house she grew up in, clinging desperately to Will's hand and wishing fervently that she didn't have to go in.** It wouldn't be so bad, really, if her mother hadn't insisted on keeping their rooms like shrines to their childhoods with so many painful reminders. Jane's room was full of pictures with friends, prom and homecoming pictures, and mementos from her early pageant years when their mother had forced her eldest to parade around in inappropriate clothes and big hair. Lizzy's room, on the other hand, had pictures of her and Jane growing up, honor roll awards, spelling bee trophies, and other mementos of a lonely life spent immersed in books.

Will stood next to her in silence waiting for her to work up the courage to ring the doorbell. She looked at him and saw the question in his eyes. How could he ever understand how hard it was to grow up in a household with a loud and abrasive mother who prized beauty and popularity above all and a father who loved her dearly, but never could stand up to his wife. At least, that is, until the day he served her divorce papers and left them all behind.

Lizzy's lip began to tremble and she could feel the blockage in her throat that signified that crying was imminent. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and swallowed the lump before she reached out and rang the doorbell.

The door was wrenched open by a sullen looking Lydia with a fat basset hound on her heels. He let out a single gruff "woof" at Will before turning his head to Lizzy with his old tail wagging furiously.

"Finally," Lydia whined. "Mom's been cooking all day!"

Lizzy and Will stepped over the threshold and let the heavy door shut behind them before Lizzy kneeled on the floor and lavished attention on her old dog.

"Darrow!" She cooed at the basset hound who always seemed to smile at her. "Who's a good boy? You're a good boy!" Darrow leaned his heavy head up and licked her lovingly on the cheek while she rubbed his ears and scratched his back.

"Darrow?" Will asked kneeling down beside her.

"After Clarence Darrow, from _To Kill a Mockingbird_. He used to be my dog," she answered. "But he and my mother grew too attached to each other for him to move with me, so I'm forced to miss him dearly."

"You wouldn't have to miss him so much if you would come home more often," her mother chided as she joined them in the foyer. "Will, dear, I'm so glad you could join us. And what a surprise when Lizzy told me! Come in, come in, dinner should be ready soon. Have a seat in the living room."

Lizzy and Darrow lead Will into the house where they found Lydia lounging in an easy chair with her ear buds stuck firmly in her ears and her fingers flying furiously over the keyboard of her phone. Will and Lizzy took a seat on the couch and Mrs. Bennet snatched the TV remote from Lydia's lap and handed it to Will. "Silly girl's not even watching," Mrs. Bennet grumbled. "Go ahead and put on whatever you'd like, Will."

Just at that moment the commercials ended and the intro for an episode of Teen Mom came on the television. Will changed the channel and, though she hadn't been paying the slightest attention to the TV previously, Lydia called out, "Hey! I was watching that!"

"No you weren't," Lizzy countered.

"Dinner is nearly ready, Lydia. Settle down," her mother scolded her.

Lizzy watched her mother scurry back to the kitchen in pure amazement. That may have been the first time that Mrs. Bennet had ever taken her middle child's side in an argument with the baby of the family. She could only chalk it up to Will's presence.

Will flipped the channels until he found a news network and he and Lizzy watched silently as the newscaster detailed the investigation that was currently taking place of Bingley Enterprises. Apparently, a lot of evidence was surfacing in Bingley Enterprises' favor and it seemed like the investigation would be drawing to an end. Charles had apparently agreed to a few modifications of the merger agreement to make the deal a bit more kosher. Lizzy hadn't been aware that she and Will were holding their breath until they both let it out in relief.

"Dinner's ready," Mrs. Bennet called from the kitchen.

The three of them stood up and headed into the kitchen, but Mrs. Bennet stopped them in the doorway.

"We're not eating in here," she said fiercely.

"Why not?" Lydia whined. Lizzy made a mental note that Lydia didn't talk much these days, but when she did it was only to whine.

"We _never_ eat in the kitchen," Mrs. Bennet insisted. Lizzy smirked at her, but her mother plowed on. "We're eating in the dining room like we _always_ do."

Lizzy held her laughter in, because honestly it did no one any good to belittle her mother in front of Will so she turned and lead the pack into the next room over, which was the nice dining room that they reserved for Thanksgiving and Christmas. She tried to see the room through Will's eyes and immediately recognized a room that was rarely used, but she walked in like it was perfectly normal that they ate at a shiny mahogany table with silverware that gleamed in the light of an old fashioned chandelier every night.

Lizzy looked down at her place setting and realized that they were even eating off of the fine china that Mr. and Mrs. Bennet had acquired at their wedding. The dinner was laid out in the nice serving dishes and Lizzy waited to find out how her mother wished to proceed, this being a completely normal dinner after all.

"Shall we say grace?" her mother asked as though they said grace over every meal.

"That would be nice," Will said clearly attempting to contain his mirth at the scene before him.

"Dear Lord in heaven, we thank you for the bounty before us and for the company of family, and soon-to-be-family," she winked slyly at Will and finished with an "Amen."

Lizzy could feel her face burning with embarrassment as everyone began to fill their plates with food. Her embarrassment was surprisingly short-lived, however, as the evening turned out to be quite pleasant with her mother asking questions about his connections to Maryland and Jane and Charlie's engagement amongst other banal topics. Lydia had nothing to contribute to the conversation and so she wolfed down her food and asked to be excused in around 15 minutes flat. When Lydia was gone, her mother spoke to her about her younger sister with a candor that Lizzy hadn't realized she was capable of.

"I don't know what to do with that girl," Mrs. Bennet sighed, "She barely passed junior year, you know, and I'm having trouble finding schools that she'll apply to, let alone attend. Did Jane tell you about UCF?"

"Yes, she said you'd be touring the campus soon?"

"Well, she really enjoyed her time visiting you all and agreed to apply to UCF, though I think secretly she plans to spend all of her time at theme parks and the beach. I was thinking I should probably sell this place and get a condo down there with you, Lizzy."

Lizzy felt all of the blood leave her head and fought the dizziness. "Really?"

"Well, this old house is so big and I don't think I could handle rattling around it all by myself with nothing but memories of your father to haunt me." She sighed in a way that gave away her feelings of loneliness. "And then you and Darrow could be neighbors and you could see him and walk him whenever you wanted."

"You don't need to use Darrow to make me okay with this, Mom. If Lydia moves down there, then of course you should too. If that's what you want."

"Well, I've got nowhere else to go," she sighed again. And for once Lizzy didn't read this comment as an accusation that she, Lizzy, was a bad daughter. It had a sense of genuine regret.

"I'll look out for places if you like, Mom. But I suppose Lydia's got to get into school before it's definite?"

"Yes, I suppose. Though wherever she ends up I'd like to be nearer to you and Janie."

Lizzy smiled for her mom and felt Will squeeze her leg under the table.

**Will drove Lizzy back to Charlotte's house in not a little bit of distress. **In fact, he had been tempted on several occasions to pull the car over in order to comfort her, but she continually insisted that she was fine and that he should continue to drive. He wasn't sure what to do and so he did as she asked and drove on. Over the hour and half drive Lizzy revealed to him, that her mother had never showed her the slightest bit of affection as a child growing up in that house and, instead, had heaped abusive language on her early and often.

Will was glad he hadn't known about this treatment of his Lizzy previously, because he was almost sure he would not have been the least bit cordial to Mrs. Bennet if he had. His heart broke as the small bit of affection and genuine emotion her mother had shown her this evening caused her to erupt into tears of emotional confusion. After some time she finally quieted down and stared out the window into the darkness for some time.

"I think that, as children, we tend not to realize our parents are human beings," he finally said. "Perhaps it requires the experience of age to learn that they are not only human, but highly flawed. I have the misfortune of idolizing my parents with the mind of an awed teenager. They'll always be perfect in my mind and I often find myself attempting to live up to their ideal image. I often have to remind myself that they were just people and surely they made some mistakes. They went and died after all."

He glanced at Lizzy who looked at him with more tears running down her face and realized that this was probably not the best thing to say at this moment, but had no way of taking it back. Lizzy merely reached across to his free hand and squeezed it before turning back to the window.

**Lizzy could not have the pleasure of Will's company for her entire visit**, which was just as well, considering she had made the trip to spend time with her friend Charlotte. She and Charlotte did a lot of talking, a lot of shopping, and a great deal of avoiding Bill Collins. At some point Lizzy managed to get Charlotte to admit that he was a tedious man (at times, she qualified) and that life with him was not so perfect, as she had previously claimed.

Lizzy, to her credit, did not do a dance with pointing fingers chanting 'I told you so' despite her strong desire to do so. Charlotte was for all intents and purposes happy and that was enough to make Lizzy happy. She knew that their friendship would always be there, but would be lessened by distance and time. As a lawyer, there was rarely time to travel for non-business purposes and Charlotte wanted kids (soon), which would further drive the wedge between them.

It was with a heavy heart that the two friends hugged goodbye at the airport, because they both knew, without having to say it, that this might be the last time they were to see each other. But both promised to write and call and with some effort the long-distance friendship might survive. Lizzy waved good bye as Charlotte pulled the car away and went to check her baggage and get her ticket with even more tears sliding down her cheeks.

****Author's Note** Excuses, excuses, excuses. I'm extremely sorry as always, but I was genuinely blocked on this chapter for a time. But, life has settled down and I have a designated writing evening now, so I'm hoping to finish this up by posting regularly. As you all know there is quite a bit of plot left to unfold so I hope you're as excited as I am to get to it. I have a plan for the rest, so fingers crossed I don't get completely blocked again in the future. Thank you for reading. Thank you very, very much. =)**


	13. The State Rests its Case

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. I, however, own the copyrights on this derivative work. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. My page breaks are indicated by **Bold type**.

**Lizzy walked into work the next morning with a smile plastered on her face.** Life, for once, seemed completely and utterly perfect. It was a feeling she was not familiar with and normally she would live in constant fear, waiting for the other shoe to drop. But this time she decided just to ride the happy wave as long as she could. She was so happy, in fact, that she had invited her mother and sister to stay in her condo when they came down to visit UCF in a few weeks. Will had already applied for and been offered a clerkship with an Orange County judge and they were on track to continue dating. She hadn't been this happy since she had passed the bar exam. However, her worst fears were confirmed as she sauntered past the receptionist and noticed something like fear on the girl's face. Lizzy's smile fell just a bit and she stopped walking.

"Is something wrong, Marina?"

"Mr. Gardner would like to see you in his office at your earliest convenience," she said quickly.

Lizzy nodded and continued on to her office with a completely different expression. She knew, as did Mr. Gardner know, that she would have a massive pile of work on her desk waiting for attention. She had made sure there were no court deadlines while she was away, but had another lawyer covering for her just in case something happened. She wondered if perhaps something had happened and her immediate attention was needed. She dropped her briefcase off in her office, noticed the pile of manila files piled in her inbox with a sigh, and went straight to Mr. Gardner's office.

His door was open, but he was already deep in a pile of paperwork and Lizzy had to knock on the open door to get his attention. "Ah, Ms. Bennet, please come in and have a seat."

"Marina said you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, I'm afraid I've got some disturbing news."

Lizzy was waiting to hear that Will had resigned and they would need to find a new intern, but what she actually heard was much, much worse.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to let you go."

Lizzy stared at him for a moment, blinking and trying to comprehend what he had just said.

"I'm sorry, did you say you're letting me go?"

Mr. Gardner sighed and pulled out a newspaper. "Lizzy, you're the best lawyer I've ever had the privilege to mentor and I've no doubt that you'll be fine on your own. If you prefer, we can say you're resigning, but either way you can no longer work here."

"If I'm so good, why exactly are you doing this?" She tried to keep the hurt out of her voice. Lizzy had never been fired before in her life and being allowed to say that she had left was little consolation to her. The fact of the matter is that she was being fired.

"I'm doing it because of this," he said as he handed her an old Orlando Sentinel.

Lizzy saw a large picture of her and Will kissing at the Netherfield ball and her heart sank. He was completely within his rights to do this and she had no rebuttal.

"Now," Mr. Gardner went on, "I understand that he's resigned, probably because of that," he gestured to the paper clutched in her hands. "Unfortunately, the resignation came too late. I was going to announce this at our annual meeting in a few weeks, but I'm running for county judge and I can't have it get out that I knew one of my attorneys was having an affair with an intern and I did nothing about it."

Lizzy stared at him unseeingly as she processed what he had just said.

"So, if you weren't running for judge, I wouldn't be fired?"

"I can't say, Liz. I'd have severely reprimanded you, but as you know there is no professional responsibility rule regarding relationships between colleagues."

"I can't believe it," she said looking at him accusingly. "You call yourself my mentor and then you throw me under the bus because it might hurt your chances at election?" Lizzy could feel rage pumping through her veins now and knew that she was in danger of losing her temper, so she stood up and moved to the door.

Before she could cross the threshold he called out to her.

"I would only do this if I didn't have the utmost confidence in your ability to thrive without us."

"Thank you Walter." She turned to look at him. "I have to say the ironic part is that when you're elected you'll no longer be at this firm. Because the voting process for judges in this county is fairly arbitrary and you have a nice name, which, in the end, is really what the voters will use to make their decision."

Lizzy turned her back and stomped down the hall. She had a hundred questions to ask, but she was too humiliated to go back and ask. In the end, she decided to deliver the files to the attorneys who had agreed to cover for her while she was on vacation. By lunch time she had cleared her inbox, forwarded correspondence, cleared her desk, and formulated a plan for the future. There would be no going away party for her. She would leave the firm she had loved and given her life to for the past four years in disgrace.

At least if she left at lunchtime she might be able to avoid seeing anyone else. Or so she thought. It seemed that no one, not even Walter Gardner, wanted her to leave without saying goodbye to her. Marina took the box of her personal possessions from her and was inundated with hugs and well wishes as she headed to the door. When she got to George Wickham he gave her a hug that was a beat too long and whispered how much he would miss her in her ear. It was slightly nauseating and Lizzy was happy to move on to the next person who was wishing her well. Marina handed her box to her eventually and she stood by the door ready to make her exit, but knowing that everyone expected a speech. Curiosity was clear on everyone's faces. Everyone, that is, except Mr. Gardner.

"Well, this was a fantastic firm to get my start in and it's been a real pleasure working with all of you. I wish you nothing but the best and hope that we'll meet again soon in the court room. Please keep in touch." Lizzy bit her lip as the temptation to shout "Vote Gardner!" nearly overpowered her, but that was his announcement to make and, bitter though she was, she was not malevolent.

With a half-hearted wave she walked out of the offices of Gardner and Klein never to look back.

**Will was beginning to worry about his choice of profession.** He was so tired of looking at contracts. But his attorney continued to put one after the other in front of him and his conscience (and the voice of Professor Barret in his head) wouldn't allow him to sign it without reading it first. After 5 contracts he was going cross-eyed.

"Look Mr. Darcy, I've read every single one of these, it's my job. I wouldn't ask you to sign them if I didn't believe you were getting the very best bargain. Seriously, you're going to have to trust me or we're never going to finish this, and I assure you, you are paying me a very high hourly rate."

Darcy was about to relent (reluctantly) when his phone rang and he saw it was Lizzy. "I have to take this," he told Mr. Smithers before standing up to take the call outside.

"Hello," he said with a smile.

"Will," she was sniffling. No, she was crying.

"What's wrong?" He sat down on a nearby armchair and braced himself.

"Gardner just fired me!"

"What? Why would he do that?"

Lizzy walked him through the exchange her voice strengthening as she talked.

Will was silent for a moment when she finished. "He's worried about getting endorsements from the legal community. Doesn't he understand how stupid that is?"

"Of course he does, but he's being cautious. I can't actually blame him. We should have been more discreet."

"No one knows that better than I, Lizzy, but to let you go over it without a reprimand or anything is just ridiculous."

"Well, it's done now. I've decided to start my own firm. I'm going office shopping this afternoon."

"That's great! You'll be able to focus on the areas that you love most."

"I know there's a bright side to this, but I'm still having trouble with the whole being fired thing. When are you coming back?" He could hear the hesitation in her voice and knew what it cost her pride to ask that question.

"I'm signing the papers today and my business will be wrapped up when we're done."

Silence.

"Hurry home," she whimpered.

"I will," he said before they hung up the phone.

Will walked back into the board room and sat down. Picking up his pen he turned to the signature line and signed on the line with a flourish. "Next."

**Lizzy went by the bank on her way to go office shopping **to determine how much money she had and to apply for a small business loan. The start up for a solo firm wasn't much, but with overhead costs and advertising she would need some help getting clients' attention. Upon beginning work at Gardner and Klein she had signed a contract stating that when she left she would not take any of her clients with her.

Not having been made partner yet, she had never had the responsibility of making it rain. She had toyed with the idea of practicing only intellectual property law, as Will had suggested, it being the law she loved best, but part of her was counting on Charlie and Jane to help her bring in business and she knew that she'd have to widen her reach to Business law matters in order to retain a sufficient clientele.

After determining that she had enough in her savings account to tide her over until she started bringing in paying customers, Lizzy filled out a loan application and met with a loan officer who determined that she was not a high risk customer and granted her the loan. It took hours to check her credit, to get approval from the higher ups and then to open her business account. But by the time 3:00 pm rolled around the Bennet Law Firm was ready to get down to business.

Lizzy was exhausted and decided to do her office research from home, but knew that she would have to make one stop first. It was a quick drive to Jane's bakery where she unfolded the drama to her extremely patient sister. It was clear to Lizzy that her sister was overwhelmed with orders and had no time to sit and listen to sob stories, but Jane waved away Lizzy's objections and sat her down at a table to talk. When Lizzy finished she pointed to the high rise across the street and said, "They've got vacancies over there. The building manager came in here to buy a cupcake the other day and was complaining about it."

"That building has a bank's name on it. It's probably way out of my price range."

"Probably for now, but I'm going to be your first client and I'll make sure that everyone I deal with knows about you."

"That's sweet Jane, but I can't ask you to do that." _Literally_, Lizzy thought guiltily. She was not allowed to solicit clients this way according to the Florida Bar.

"Nonsense," Jane replied. "I'm not soliciting clients; I'm simply using word of mouth. I'm sure Charlie will be happy to do the same."

"That would great, Jane." Lizzy felt a bit lighter and left her sister's shop with a spring in her step.

Her next stop was to go across the street and talk to the building manager. She was going to need at least two rooms and she could only pay so much for rent.

"Bennet, huh? Any relation to the baker across the way there?" The manager looked at her application and then at her. The resemblance between Jane and Lizzy was minimal, but it was there.

"She's my sister, actually."

"Well, for Jane's sister I could probably make this work. She makes the best cupcakes I've ever eaten."

"Mr. Bluth, if you can make this work, those cupcakes will be free for the rest of your life."

Mr. Bluth laughed and said, "Ms. Bennet, they already are!"

**Will stepped off of the plane and headed to the baggage claim.** He wanted to see Lizzy as soon as possible and was never happier to be wealthy than he was when he needed a ride home from the airport. The plan was to go home and drop his bags off before heading to Lizzy's place to go furniture shopping with her.

It seemed like an eternity passed while he waited for his bag to ride the carousel and then as he watched the scenery flash past on his way home. He encountered no one at home since Charlie was probably at Jane's and Caroline hadn't returned from New York yet. He literally tossed his bags into his room and then dashed for the garage to drive over to Lizzy's place. Frankly, he was a bit surprised at the intensity of his feelings. The relative safety of the other drivers on the road was somewhat called into question as he zipped through traffic to get to her place. It wasn't far away though and in literally minutes he was knocking on her door.

He hadn't really thought about bracing myself, but thought that he probably should have when the door flew open and Lizzy ran into his arms. They ended up making out on the door of the unit across the hall from Lizzy before they gathered their wits long enough to move it inside of her condo. The reunion was quick, but intense and they lay in Lizzy's bed curled up together for a while afterwards.

"I'm sure we were supposed to do something today," Will yawned.

"I have no chairs or desks in my office. I need a printer and phones and a paralegal!"

"You'll get them," he said as he rubbed her shoulders soothingly. "Can you even afford a paralegal?"

"No, but I was going to see about hiring a law student," she smiled and he burst into laughter.

"I get to sit in on the interview." They laughed and she nestled against him again. "Where were you going to get furniture from?"

"I wanted to check out UCF first, they have a surplus store and I thought it might be a good place to get everything. Though I'd be willing to splurge on a good chair."

"If you're going to splurge on something I'd say a chair and really good printer."

"I found a place that rents out office equipment so I can get computers and a copy machine printer combo. Copiers are expensive!"

"Okay, it sounds like you've got everything in hand. Surely it can wait until tomorrow?"

"I suppose it can. I'm just excited to get started."

"That's good. Is this turning out to be a blessing in disguise?"

Lizzy sighed and turned to look at him. "It is. I wish it hadn't happened the way it had, but I'm pretty confident that I can make this work and if not, then I'll find work somewhere else. I just thought I'd give it a try on my own for a bit."

"I am extremely confident that you can make this work." He leaned over and kissed her and suddenly they were having a much slower and lengthier reunion.

**Lizzy sat at her used desk and stared at her newly connected phone.** She knew that she couldn't will it to ring with her mind, but she was going to try. After she and Will had gotten thoroughly reacquainted they had gone out and procured all of the necessary office furniture and equipment. They spent the next day waiting on delivery men and then rearranging furniture and hooking up equipment and installing software. They had gone back to Lizzy's place exhausted and had gone straight to bed. Will was starting his internship at the court house the next morning and Lizzy was going to get a start on things like advertising and finding an assistant and an intern. An intern was great for getting the legal grunt work done, but Lizzy couldn't answer the phone herself when the intern wasn't there.

After sitting and staring at the phone for a bit she got on with brainstorming ideas to get her name out there. She laughed at herself for expecting business to come knocking when no one knew she existed. That was when the phone rang.

"Bennet Law," she said in what she hoped was a steady voice.

"Hi, I'm calling for Elizabeth Bennet."

"This is she," she answered her palms beginning to sweat.

"I need some legal assistance and I heard from your sister that you were good with intellectual property stuff?" The voice was unfamiliar and a bit gruff and Lizzy wondered what exactly he could need her intellectual property services for.

"I'd happy to assist you in any way I can. I do have a long and excellent track record with intellectual property issues. Perhaps we could schedule a consult?"

"That would be great. Are you free tomorrow morning?"

"I think I have an opening. Would 9:30 work for you?"

"Yeah, that's good. Thanks."

"We'll see you then," Lizzy said. She got the man's information and made sure he knew how to find her and then hung up the phone and danced around the room. When the adrenaline finally left her system she had ordered business cards, written press releases, found a small marketing firm to design print ads for her, set up a website domain, and submitted ads online and with local services for an assistant and an intern. Suddenly, the day was over and she was exhausted.

She found herself pleased at the prospect of going home to meet Will and thought about how nice it would be when they were ready to take the next step and move in together. Lizzy hadn't been in many long term relationships and so had no idea what the appropriate amount of time was before that subject could be broached. She knew that Charlie spent all of his time at Jane's even though his house was much nicer and that if they continued on in this way much longer they would practically be living together anyway. Maybe she should bring it up sooner rather than later…

These thoughts chased themselves in circles in her head as she drove home so she was a bit surprised to see Will waiting outside of her door when she arrived. She had expected him over for dinner, but she thought she'd had more time to prepare.

"You're early," she said with a smile.

"I couldn't wait," he said as he kissed her hello.

"Come on inside then," she giggled as she led the way in before dropping her keys on a table and turning to kiss him again.

"Wait, I…"

"What?" she asked. He was clearly nervous and fidgety and she began to panic inwardly.

"I have something I want to ask you."

"Oh!" she smiled and led him to the couch in the living room. "I have something to ask you too. You first, though."

They sat down, but instead of landing on the couch, Will kept going until one of his knees landed on the floor and Lizzy began to panic again for an entirely different reason. She could feel her head shaking back and forth even before he could ask the question, but ask it he would.

"Lizzy, I can't actually believe how unbelievably great it's been being with you and even just spending time with you before we were officially together. I want you to know that I am deeply in love with you and I know it's a bit soon, but I want to know if you'll marry me." He took a breath and she realized he hadn't been breathing as he gave his speech.

She could only stare at him in horror as she tried to find the words that would say what she wanted without destroying everything.

"I can't!" she eventually blurted out.

He stared at her for a moment. He probably hadn't been expecting a rejection. He was almost never rejected. "What do you mean you can't?" He didn't look angry. He looked perplexed.

"I mean, I can't marry you. Not yet. Not right now. I was – I was going to ask you to move in! Marriage is…it's too soon!"

"But I know that you're the person I want to spend the rest of my life with!"

"Do you? Because I'm not sure I know you well enough to say the same yet. We've been dating less than a month and we spent half of that time apart. Why don't we give it more time? You should move in and we can make sure that we're truly compatible!"

Will was silent. Lizzy began panicking again. Some more.

"Will say something."

"I don't know what to say. I'm confident that there is no other person on earth for me besides you. I bought a ring on my lunch break today."

"You have to know that it's too soon. You said so yourself!"

"But we'd been spending all of that time together before."

"Yes, I remember that part where I hated your guts and then I suppressed my animal attraction and then you rejected me outright and then we got together. I still think it's too soon!"

"I have to go." Will stood up and pulled a robin's egg blue velvet box out of his pocket and set on the table. "Hang on to this and think it over," he said angrily. He left the condo and Lizzy was not imagining that the door shut much louder than usual.

She picked up the box on the table and peeked inside. It was perfect, tasteful, flawless, and exquisite, the kind of ring that Will Darcy would pick out. She shut the box and set it right back on the table before getting up and changing into her running clothes. No better time to think than on a run.

****Author's Note** So the real world is interesting. I sit at a desk and stare at a computer all day which makes it awfully hard to get motivated to stare at a computer in the evening. It's long overdue, but here it is. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks to katesie for pointing out my major, shameful lawyer error. The dog is named after Clarence Darrow who was a real (awesome!) lawyer, and not Atticus Finch who is the fictional lawyer from **_**To Kill a Mockingbird**_**. I have decided to keep the dog's name as it is and change Lizzy's explanation to Will. This is what I get for not properly researching things to verify them. **


	14. Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are Public Domain works and no disclaimer is ever needed. I, however, own the copyrights on this derivative work. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. My page breaks are indicated by **Bold type**.

**Lizzy ran. **She ran her usual route and found she still hadn't come to a decision so she ran it again. When she staggered back up to her condo she saw the ring on the table and knew that she had made the right decision. She loved him, she knew that, but marriage was a huge commitment. Especially for someone who had never had a proper long term relationship before. She decided to shower and see how she felt afterwards. Some of her best ideas came in the shower.

Except after this shower she was even surer that she was not ready for marriage. It wasn't late yet, so she decided to take the ring and talk to Will. Jane answered the door which surprised Lizzy so much that she wasn't able to cover the look on her face. Not having a mirror in front of her, she had no idea how bad she looked, but based on her sister's immediate reaction it was probably pretty bad.

"Lizzy, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

Lizzy wanted to answer. She opened her mouth to answer, but all that came out was a choked sob which she attempted to cover as Jane pulled her into the house and embraced her in the foyer. Lizzy felt herself calming and tried to speak again, but couldn't seem to get the words out.

"Janie, who was at the door?" Charlie was asking as he wandered out of the living room. "Lizzy!" His pleasure at seeing her quickly faded when he saw the state she was in. "What's happened? Come in here and have a seat."

Jane led her near-hysterical sister into the living room and sat her in a comfy, overstuff chair while Charlie went to the kitchen to get her some water. When he returned she took the glass gratefully and sipped. Her breathing was beginning to return to normal and she hiccupped.

"So Will came home earlier and slammed the door really hard. Then he stalked to his room and slammed the door really hard there too. Has something happened between you two?" Charlie asked calmly as he sat with Jane on the couch.

"Will asked me to marry him earlier."

Jane and Charlie exchanged a look. Clearly if she was in hysterics the outcome of the proposal had not been positive.

"I said no, but he left the ring with me and told me to think about it. I just wanted to return it and talk to him." Lizzy felt heartbroken saying those words out loud. It would be over. He was going to end it, just as it was starting.

"He's in his room. You're welcome to go back there." Charlie said holding his Janie's hand just a bit tighter, Lizzy noticed.

"Thanks," she sniffed and wiped her eyes before standing up and heading further into the house.

Lizzy had loved this house since she had first crossed its threshold over a year ago. Whenever she was allowed to walk through it on her own she always made a point to admire the high ceilings, the fixtures, the rugs, the artwork, it seemed that whoever designed and decorated this house had similar tastes to her. But today she wandered through the hallway unseeing as she found her way to Will's bedroom. She had thought he'd like the idea of not having to live with Caroline Bingley anymore. She'd thought he would love to share a space with her, but a lifetime? The rest of their lives? It had been downright unfair how he'd thrown that at her out of nowhere.

She knocked at his door and heard him growl at the door "Get out of here Charles."

"It's Lizzy," she said as loudly as she could manage.

When the door swung open she jumped a mile from the surprise, because it had happened so soon. He took one look at her standing in his doorway clutching the box with red streaks on her fair skin from crying. He didn't have to ask, she knew that he knew. She didn't expect the reaction. He frowned at her and held out his hand. She wordlessly put the ring box in his palm and stepped back from him, as though she feared him.

"What are you crying about? I'm the one who got rejected." He was upset. She kept reminding herself that this was not her Will talking. This was hurt Will.

"We just…" she started and choked up. She swallowed hard and continued. "We just became a couple. I don't want that to change. I love you, Will, I'm just not ready for marriage."

"I don't think I can be in a relationship with you right now."

She had expected that. But she hadn't expected it either. Not really. Hearing him say it made it real and certain and she felt her heart breaking.

"I won't marry you to save our relationship," she spat at him bitterly. "And if you think that I would, then maybe we're better off this way." She felt another wave of tears hitting her so she turned quickly and walked briskly away from him before he could see them.

**Will stood frozen in surprise.** He watched as her silhouette bobbed quickly down the hall away from him and he fought the urge to chase after her. Part of him couldn't believe he was letting her go and part of him couldn't believe she had rejected his proposal. The smart part of him, the one that wanted to chase her, also understood her reluctance. Intellectually, he knew that it had been a very short time and most of it had been spent in different parts of the country. Emotionally, he knew that she was his and he was hers and he wanted to seal that deal and make it legal. He wanted to have children with her and go to bed with her every night knowing that they were forever bound by their commitment.

And suddenly, in that moment, he realized that this rash decision (he bought a diamond ring on his _lunch_ break?) was clearly the result of some deep seeded anxiety. He looked at his right hand gripping the velvet ring box a little too tightly and realized that he had been terrified that she was going to leave him. _Like everyone else_, he thought. Will looked up at the place where her silhouette had been suddenly.

Where had that come from? His parents died, his sister left him for college, purposely choosing a school on the other side of the country, Charlie was his oldest and, frankly, only friend. What had happened to everyone else? Surely it had not been easy when he had had to step into his father's shoes, but did they not care enough to keep in touch? But then again, had he?

How long had he been standing here psychoanalyzing himself? Was it too late? He ran to the front door and watched her car pull away. He ran out to the sidewalk that crossed in front of the house, but she was turning the corner and didn't see him. When he wandered back into the house he found Charlie and Jane talking quietly in the living room.

"Are you all right, Will?" Jane asked. "Lizzy was very upset when she left."

"I'm an idiot," he responded before walking back to his room.

How were they going to recover from this one?

**Lizzy didn't really want to work the next day, but she had an appointment with her only prospect for business and there was no way she could reschedule. **She put on a suit and made up her face, carefully covering the bags under eyes as a result of a long night of not sleeping and intermittent crying.

Lizzy arrived at the office early to prepare for the consult and when she started up her computer and checked her email. What she found there caused her heart to skip a beat and, though she desperately wanted to read the email, she closed her mailbox and attempted to focus on the task at hand. She honestly had no idea what this prospect wanted advice on, but she pulled up various case law and statutes just in case. She had LexisNexis open and ready to be searched and she opened Google.

The man showed up at exactly 9:30 and looked hesitant as he gazed around her small office.

"I apologize for the mess," she said quickly. "I'm still in the moving process."

"No problem." He followed her into her office and she offered him a seat in front of her desk. When they were seated she put on her best smile (not as good as her normal smile, but the best she could muster considering) and launched into her spiel.

It turned out the man was a tattoo artist and he had put his own design in a prominent place on a celebrity and that design was being copied in a major motion picture without his permission. Lizzy and Tom, the artist, spent the next hour researching case precedent. Lizzy wanted to inspire true confidence in her services, since the office wasn't exactly speaking for itself, so she rattled off a number of cases she had won from her years of experience.

Tom wasn't wealthy, but he had enough to pay a retainer and they agreed that she would work on a contingency basis. If she lost she would keep the retainer to pay for overhead fees and if she won, she would make a decent percentage of the award. After he left, she spent several hours searching for case law and combing through statutes to make sure she had interpreted the law correctly. When she was sure she had a good starting off point she set a reminder to contact Tom the next day and update him on her progress. She was going to have to drive to Daytona to file the petition against Millenial Films, as the Defendants were in California and the case was sure to be worth a great deal of money. This wasn't her first case in Federal court, but it was her first case on her own and there was a level of uncertainty creeping up on her.

She damped it down and diligently wrote the petition, all the while knowing, in the back of her head, that there was an important email waiting for her just a few clicks away.

It was coming on lunch time when she finished writing and researching the petition so she decided to take a break and read that email.

Her fingers shook as she clicked on the message and when the letter appeared she had to start three times to actually see what he had written.

_My Dearest Lizzy,_

_I'm so sorry for presenting you with an untenable ultimatum tonight. I knew you weren't ready. I did. What I did was impulsive and foolish. But I wanted you to know that I did it because I was terrified. I think I was terrified that if I didn't "lock you down" now, that I would lose you. It doesn't excuse my behavior, exactly, but I realized that I was really scared of losing you. I hope that you can forgive me for what happened. I returned the ring. If you give me a second chance, I promise that I won't ask you again. At least not until I know that you're 100% ready. Please call me, if you can forgive me._

_3 Will_

Once the words sank in she read them over and over again. She printed the letter and went over to the bakery to have lunch with Jane and to show her the letter. Lizzy read the printed version one more time and sat there contemplating what it meant.

**Will spent most of his day at the court house completely distracted. **He kept thinking that he felt his phone buzzing in his pocket only to realize that it was a phantom buzz. By lunch time he was certain that she hadn't received the email yet and he started to relax. His phone buzzed and this time he knew it was real. He pulled it out and found an email in his inbox. His breath was held as he opened his email and saw it was from Lizzy.

_Will,_

_Thank you for the message. I need some time to think. I'll give you a call later this week._

_3 Lizzy_

She needed time to think. He sighed and put his phone away and decided to work through lunch. Anything to keep him distracted. Anything to stop him from thinking. He managed to lose himself in case law for the rest of the afternoon and he only thought about Lizzy a few times. An hour.

**Jane arrived at Lizzy's place at 6:00 PM exactly with one pint of Ben and Jerry's Amercone Dream and one pint of Chocolate Peanut Butter Haagen Daas. **Lizzy was miserable. Why had she written him that stupid email? Time to think? What was there to think about? She loved him! She'd probably have wanted to marry him sooner or later. Why couldn't it have just happened now?

"You're not ready," Jane reminded her as she handed her a spoon. "It was ridiculous of him to even ask."

Lizzy hiccoughed as she nodded. "He returned the ring. He rescinded the offer."

"Do you want him back?"

Lizzy nodded again.

"What's stopping you, then," Jane asked gently as she spoon fed her sister some Haagen Daas.

"What if he doesn't have the self control to not ask me again? We can't do this every three or four weeks when he gets scared again."

"Maybe you two should have a drink out somewhere and talk about this."

"And say what? 'Promise you won't propose again'?" Lizzy sniffed. "What if I'm never ready? He said he won't propose until he knows I'm 100% ready. What if that's never?"

"That is a gamble you and he have to be willing to take if you love each other. Maybe you'll never be ready to get married. Maybe you will. But you'll never get to know if you don't try."

Lizzy nodded and took a bite of her Ben and Jerry's. "I'll call him tomorrow."

"Okay," Jane smiled. "Let's watch Steel Magnolias."

**Lizzy didn't call that week like she had said she would in her email. **Soon Will began to think that she never would and once he began to think that they were over, he was able to function normally again. He stopped waiting for the phone to ring after a few days and soon he stopped checking his email obsessively. A week after she didn't call he was able to get through a half a day without thinking of her and not too long thereafter, he would only think of her as he was lying in bed trying to sleep.

Judge Davies had been looking at him sternly today and he knew that the dark circles under his eyes were deep. Davies had asked him how school was going and Will told him that it was fine. The fall semester of his second year had finally started and he was doing fine. He especially enjoyed Business Law. He had arranged his schedule so he could intern with Judge Davies in the morning and take classes in the afternoons and evenings.

Will's only real regret was having to suffer the indignity of seeing Jane Bennet at his home every evening. He would come home from class late, bone tired from not sleeping well and find the sister of his ex-girlfriend playing homemaker in his kitchen. The wedding was coming up soon and he knew he'd have to see her then. There was no way around it. He was best man and she was maid of honor. That decision had shown marvelous foresight on the part of Charlie and Jane.

The worst part of this whole set up was the way that Jane smiled sadly at him when she saw him. She knew. She knew what was in her sister's mind and heart and that was how she smiled at him. Like he was pathetic, someone to be pitied. It made him angry to the point that he began looking for a new place to live. It wasn't like he couldn't afford his own home, after all. It was time for him to strike out on his own. The straw that broke the camel's back came one night when Jane was in the kitchen baking sample cakes for Charlie to taste. She was even decorating them like miniature wedding cakes. He just wanted to make a sandwich and go to bed.

"Are you okay, Will?" She asked as she moved around the kitchen like it was her own.

"I'm fine," he said gruffly as he slapped meat on bread as fast as he could.

"You look like you haven't been sleeping well." She moved over to one of the cakes with an icing bag.

"I haven't," he said gruffly, refusing to look her in the eye.

"Neither has Lizzy." Will stopped what he was doing despite his own better judgment.

"So," he said more harshly than he had meant to.

"I just thought you might like to know. Every week she says that this will be the week that she calls you, but she can't bring herself to do it. She's scared."

"I don't care," he said in a voice that betrayed how much he cared.

"She hasn't moved on," Jane said in a very off-hand, nonchalant voice. "I don't think you've moved on either. Just give her some time and she'll figure out what an idiot she's being."

"I can't wait forever, Jane."

"I know that."

"Good night," he said as he carried his sandwich to his room.

That night he didn't sleep at all.

**Lizzy picked up her phone and found Will's number.** She stared at it for a few minutes and debated whether she should call him or not. Just as her finger hovered over the number, the phone began to ring and the Gardner's home number came up on her phone. She answered it.

"Hello?"

"Lizzy!" It was Sue Gardner, Mr. Gardner's wife and Lizzy's old professor. Lizzy had TA'd for her back in law school. It was how Lizzy got her first job.

"Hi Sue, how are you?"

"I am devastated! I can't believe Arthur did that to you."

"It's okay. I guess it was all for the best."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that. Arthur has been just sick over the whole thing. We wanted to know if you'd meet us for lunch this week."

"I guess that would be okay. I'm free on Wednesday."

"Excellent! We'll go to our favorite restaurant!"

"See you Wednesday, then. At noon?"

"Yes!"

**Lizzy walked into her favorite Mexican restaurant and saw her favorite couple sitting at their regular table. With Will.** She hovered at the doorway debating her next move when Sue looked up and saw her. She waved, which made Arthur and Will turn to look. Will stood up when Lizzy approached and she could hear him saying:

"I'll leave you to your lunch now."

"Don't leave on my behalf," she said putting a brave smile on her face.

"If you don't mind," he said looking into her eyes intently.

"I don't mind," she said as she took her seat.

"Mr. Gardner, er Arthur, was just telling me about the campaign."

"Yes, how is that going Arthur?" Lizzy attempted to smile for him, but it probably looked more like a grimace.

To his credit, Arthur Gardner looked ashamed. "I've been hoping to run into you Lizzy, but Sue said that would never happen. So we invited you here so that I could properly apologize."

"There's nothing to apologize for Arthur. You did what you had to do, and honestly it was the push I needed to finally start my own firm. I'm actually working on cases that I'm genuinely interested in. No hard feelings here."

"I'm glad to hear that," Arthur looked relieved. "I'm hoping I can count on your support."

"Of course!" Lizzy said as the waitress came over and they all ordered lunch.

"How's your family?" Sue asked once the waitress took their menus.

"Don't ask," Lizzy grimaced. "My mother and younger sister have been in town for a week already for the big wedding and my father will be arriving tomorrow."

"That's exciting," Sue said. "When was the last time you saw your father?"

"Graduation," Lizzy said. "He came for my graduation from Barry."

"And the wedding is Saturday?" Arthur asked.

"Yes, I can't wait for it to be over!"

"Surely it's not so bad," Sue said. "If anyone deserves it, it's Jane."

"Oh, I'm over the moon for Jane, but being the maid of honor in her perfect wedding is driving me around the bend. All of my free time has been spent at dress fittings and stuffing envelopes and tastings. I've been extremely busy."

"How's the new practice going?" Arthur asked. Lizzy's phone began ringing and she rummaged in her purse for it.

"Oh it's great! I've got a really big first case. Let me just see who's calling…" Her mother's number was on her phone and she had missed the call. She listened to the message her mother left and felt the blood leave her head. The room began to spin and she knew that the three of them were staring at her.

She put the phone in her bag and stood up. "I have to go," she said as she rummaged in her purse for money. "I have to…um…go…"

"Lunch is on us, dear," Sue said standing up. "Is everything all right?"

"Lydia, my sister, she's run off." Lizzy looked at Will and she knew he saw the fear in her eyes. "With Wickham."

Will's face reflected how she felt and Arthur was saying, "That nice young man from IT? He ran off with your teenaged sister?"

"Yes," Lizzy said distractedly. "Excuse me, I hope we can reschedule lunch?"

"Of course," Sue said hugging her, which set off a cascade of tears. "Take care, Lizzy."

Lizzy swallowed and nodded. Will stood up and tossed a twenty dollar bill on the table.

"I should go as well," he said.

Will walked Lizzy out of the restaurant to her car. "Are you okay to drive?" he asked with genuine concern.

"Yes, I'm fine. You certainly didn't have to leave. I didn't intend to ruin everyone's lunch."

"I've got to go take care of something. Look, if you need me then call me, okay? For anything."

Lizzy managed a teary smile up at him and nodded. He kissed her lightly on the cheek and went to his own car. She got into her car and tore out of the parking lot towards Jane's house. She had no time to lose.

****Author's Note** I know this chapter may have disappointed some of you, but deep down you all knew I couldn't let it happen, right? Seeing all of the new people following me is very gratifying and I really appreciate it. Some of you may recognize part of this chapter as being "ripped from the headlines." Lizzy's first client's case did actually happen. I really like the idea of protecting tattoo artists who may not know otherwise, so this was something I enjoyed incorporating into an otherwise dramatic chapter. I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!**


	15. Surprise Witness

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are in the Public Domain and no disclaimer is needed. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. Section breaks are useless, I've bolded the start of new sections.

**Trigger Warning - Uncomfortable Situations Ahead**

**Lizzy arrived to chaos at Jane's house.** Charles was on the phone with the police and Mrs. Bennet was pacing and crying and looking at her phone. Jane was in the kitchen baking. Lizzy wasn't at all surprised by what she found. Charles was a man of action, Jane hid behind the oven in a crisis, and Mrs. Bennet was generally useless. Lizzy gave her mother a hug just to get her to stop moving. She guided the older woman to a couch and handed her a tissue.

"I left her alone for a few hours and she was gone!" Mrs. Bennet cried in anguish.

"Where did you leave her alone?" Lizzy asked trying to keep calm.

"At a Starbucks! There was a store I wanted to visit nearby and when I returned she was gone! She said she was tired of shopping and just wanted to talk to her friend."

"What friend? Did she say?"

"Of course not, she never tells me anything anymore."

Lizzy bit her tongue. There was no point in telling her mother that it was her job to know these things about her children and reminding her that she had grilled Lizzy every time she wanted to make a phone call or leave the house. She swallowed the bitterness rising in her throat and took a moment to collect her emotions. Fingerpointing and name-calling would be no help in this situation.

"Has anyone called Daddy?"

"Yes, I called him. He was as vile as one would expect, but he's pushed his flight up and is getting on the next one out of San Diego today."

"Good." At the moment Charlie hung up the phone and joined them. "The cops say that she's not a missing person until 24 hours, but they've sent out the amber alert since she's still under 18. If we can't find her by tomorrow afternoon we'll call back and report her missing."

Mrs. Bennet wailed, "Tomorrow?! She could be dead by tomorrow!"

Lizzy rubbed her mother's back in soothing circles and shot a glance at the kitchen. "How's Jane?"

"She's cooking," Charles sighed. "She's making croissant."

Lizzy sighed. Croissants were not easy things to make. Lizzy left her mother to Charlie's soothing words and went into the kitchen to find her sister up to her eyebrows in flour and lard.

"What kind are you making?" Lizzy asked, keeping her voice light.

"Almond," Jane said in that lifeless voice that Lizzy hated to hear from her.

"We're going to find her," Lizzy said.

"How do you know that?" a tinge of anger coloring Jane's voice.

"I just do," Lizzy said. "Can I distract you with something trivial?"

"Please do," Jane replied as she rolled out a new batch of dough.

"When mom called I was at Garibaldi's with the Gardners and Will."

That stopped Jane's dough work. "Will Darcy?"

"No, Will Shakespeare. Of course Will Darcy, why else would I have mentioned it?"

"I'm sorry if I needed to confirm," Jane banged a metal mixing bowl down on the counter causing Charlie to pop his head in the kitchen.

"Everything okay in here?"

"Lizzy's a smartass," Jane said.

"True story," Lizzy piped up.

"Okay, just checking." Charlie's head disappeared from the door again.

"So how did this lunch happen?"

"I don't know," Lizzy marveled. "Sue Gardner called me up out of the blue and asked me to have lunch with them and when I arrived, Will was there."

"Was it okay?"

"Yeah," Lizzy said slowly, thinking about their interaction. "We didn't get to talk much. He knows about Lydia."

"What? Lizzy how?"

"He was there when I listened to Mom's message, I kind of freaked out."

"Well, I guess it's not the end of the world if he knows. Charlie trusts him. "

Lizzie nodded.

"Do you really think she'll be fine?" Jane asked sadly as she returned to her pastry dough.

"I don't know. Will said something to me once about George Wickham, but it seemed so ridiculous and I didn't take it seriously at the time."

"What?"

Lizzy hesitated. If she said it out loud then it was sure to cause panic and hysteria. But they needed to know. "Do you remember that night I went out for drinks with George?" Jane nodded. "Well, before I left here, Will said that I shouldn't leave George alone with my drinks."

Jane stopped what she was doing and stared at Lizzy. "Was he serious?"

"I think he was. There was bad blood between them. George spent that whole night badmouthing the Darcys."

"Charlie!" Jane shouted suddenly.

Charlie popped his head into the kitchen again. "Yes, dear?"

"Oh, he's got that down," Lizzy said with a small chuckle.

"Tell me what you know about George Wickham, right now!"

Charlie came all the way into the kitchen. "Not much. I know there was an incident with George and Georgiana, Will's sister."

"What kind of incident?" Lizzy asked, all seriousness now.

"I don't know, because Will refuses to give details, but it's the reason Will moved down here. Why he transferred schools and everything."

Jane and Lizzy looked at each other. If it made Will pack up and move across the country, it couldn't have been good.

**Will Darcy knocked on the door of number 12 and waited.** Some random guy who was pretty high answered the door. Will could smell pot smoke and took a step back from the door.

"Where's Wickham," He asked the stoner.

"He left town," the stoner said angrily. "Took off without paying his rent."

"Did he say where he was going?"

"No, man, he just took off with all his stuff."

Will sighed and thanked the guy before heading back to his car.

He called Georgie. "Hey can you meet me?"

"Where?" she said instantly.

"The Starbucks on 50. Near the Target."

"I can be there in 10." She hung up and he jumped in his car and sped away.

Will walked into the Starbucks and saw his little sister standing at the pick up area flirting with the Barista. When she spotted him entering her face lit up in a way that soothed Will's tired heart. He headed to the cashier when she stopped him.

"I got your usual," she called and he walked towards her as the flirtatious Barista slid two drinks across the counter. "Thanks Phil," she smiled sweetly for the guy before they took their drinks to a table.

Will took a sip of his caramel macchiato and sighed.

"So what's going on?" Georgie asked after a long silence. "It sounded pretty urgent on the phone."

"It's Wickham," he said quietly. The blood drained out of Georgie's face and he cursed the fact that he even had to bring her into this.

"What is," she whispered.

"Do you remember the woman I told you about? Lizzy Bennet?"

"Yes, of course I do. Has he done something to her?"

"No, but he's run off with her younger sister. Her 17 year old sister."

"Oh, jesus." Georgie shut her eyes and placed her head in her hands. "This is my fault, I should have pressed charges."

"It's not your fault. If it's anyone's fault it's mine. If I had just told Lizzy about him then maybe we wouldn't be in this predicament."

"No, Will. If I had pressed charges maybe he would be- This wouldn't be happening. To anyone else."

"I need to find them. Before anything happens to her."

"Have you tried his apartment?" she asked.

Will nodded. "I have no idea where to look next."

"His dealer," Georgie said.

**"Lizzie, my dear," Mr. Edward Bennet said as he hugged his second daughter at the airport. "How are you?"**

"Better now that you're here, Daddy." Lizzy said as she leaned into the long hug.

"Well, now, we'd better get going before your mother bursts a blood vessel." Mr. Bennet placed his suitcase in Lizzy's trunk and they left the airport for Lizzy's condo.

The plan for the wedding had been that Jane would house their mother and Lydia and Lizzy would have Mr. Bennet in her guest room. Considering how quickly a fight could escalate when they were in the same room, it seemed like the safest option.

They were settling Mr. Bennet in when Lizzy heard her doorbell. When she opened the door she saw Will Darcy and a younger, female version of him. Lizzy opened her mouth to talk, but didn't know what to say. She just kept moving her mouth and looking from Will to the girl and back again. It had officially become embarassing.

"Hello Lizzy," he said after awhile. "I'd like you to meet Geogiana."

"Please call me Georgie," the girl said shyly.

"May we come in?" Will asked. Lizzy nodded and pulled door open wider for them to pass.

"Lizzy, I'm all set, we can go-" Mr. Bennet stopped short upon seeing Will and Georgiana standing in the hall.

"Of course dad, just give us a moment please."

"Mr. Bennet?" Will said stepping forward with his hand out. "William Darcy, a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Certainly, you as well," Mr. Bennet replied, though he clearly sounded puzzled.

"Will is Charlie's best friend and best man," Lizzy said in explanation.

"Oh, very good, very good. Well, certainly I can give you a few moments, but we really must be going soon, Liz."

"Actually, sir, what we have to discuss concerns you as well, if you'd like to join us."

"Come have a seat," Lizzy led them all into the living room and Will kept them in suspense no longer.

"I've brought Georgie here to discuss Wickham with you," Will said turning to his sister.

"Oh, no," Lizzy said quickly. "Charlie told us there was an incident, but I don't want you to tell us anything you're not comfortable telling."

"It's fine. In fact, I think it might help you find Lydia." Georgie paused letting that sink in and took a deep breath. "Last year, when I first moved down for school, I met Wickham for the first time in years at a Starbucks," she chuckled to herself. "He was just as I remembered him back in Maryland. Charming, handsome, witty." Will harumphed and Lizzy had to fight back a smile. Georgie continued, "he asked me out a few times and even offered to buy me drinks, but I'm not a big drinker, so it took a few dates before he was able to roofie me." Lizzy gasped and Georgie swallowed hard. Her eyes had grown glassy with unshed tears.

"I woke up in a strange bed, naked and hurting. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know anything." Her tears began to fall now as she explained, "I didn't know anything. I found my clothes, my purse, all my money was gone. All I had was my cell phone. The apartment had so many people just sleeping all over it and as I walked outside I figured out where I was."

Lizzy hadn't realized how hard she was gripping the armrests of her chair and she noticed that her father had gone ghostly white.

"I know now that I should have gone straight to the police. That I should have gone to the hospital for a rape kit and tox screening. I know. I-I just wish I had known it then. I wish I had been level-headed enough to know at the time. I didn't press charges, if I had, who knows if he would have been able to- I just wanted you to know that I know now and that I'm so, so sorry." Georgie was full on crying now and she leaned in to her brother's embrace.

"Georgie, this isn't your fault," Lizzy began calmly. "It is definitely not your fault."

"But, if I had only just-" Georgie started again.

"No!" Lizzy moved over to sit next Georgie on the couch and looked her directly in the eyes. "Please, don't ever think that it, ANY of it was your fault. What happened to you wasn't your fault, what's happened to my stupid, silly little sister isn't your fault. It's Wickham's. Do you understand me? It is all Wickham's fault. He is the only one to blame here."

Will stared at Lizzy as she pleaded for his little sister to understand. He couldn't help it. He loved her more now than he ever had before. He hadn't thought it possible. In the midst of her own family tragedy, she took the time to make Georgie understand the true nature of the situation. She had also done what Will had failed to do for months. She'd convinced Georgie.

She was crying still, but she was nodding her understanding and her gaze never faltered from Lizzy's.

"My dear girl," Mr. Bennet said from his own seat. "I cannot imagine the strength and courage it took for you to share that with us, only so that you could help with our own trouble. We are honored and grateful."

Will liked him already. He could see, now, the family resemblance. Lizzy took after him in looks, but there was also an intelligence in his eyes that he recognized from Lizzy. She was definitely her father's daughter.

"Of course the point of all of this was that we think we know where Wickham has taken Lydia," Will said breaking a very comforting silence.

"Where?" Mr. Bennet looked at him with piercing blue eyes.

"The place where I was raped. His dealer's apartment."

Mr. Bennet stood up. He looked at Lizzy and she seemed to understand.

"Georgie, would you like to come to my sister's house? Charlie's there with them. Jane's been baking for two days straight so I'm sure we can find something there to tempt you."

"That's a wonderful idea," Will said. "Jane is the best, Georgie, you should definitely go."

"Okay," she stood up and took Lizzy's hand.

"Shall we try our luck," Mr. Bennet said to Will. Will nodded and they all left together.

**Lizzy and Georgie drove in companionable silence.** Lizzy maneuvered carefully through traffic and tried to remain nonchalant when she said, "Georgie, I want you to know that a large number of date rapes go unreported and of those that are, not many result in jail time."

Georgie mulled that over for a while.

"I don't say that to make you feel better. I'm sure it doesn't make you feel better. It's just the nature of the beast. Most victims feel responsible for what happened to them and so they don't think to report it. Or if they do, they often don't think to preserve the evidence so the rapist goes free. The reason I tell you this is to let you know that you are not alone. Okay?"

Georgie nodded and whispered, "Okay."

"Here we are," Lizzy said as she pulled into Jane's driveway. She stopped the car and they sat in silence for a moment. "Are you ready to go in?"

"I'm good." Georgie unbuckled her seat belt and turned to Lizzy. "Thank you."

"It's my pleasure. Now, let's get you some almond croissants. Do you like almond?"

"I love it," Georgie said as they got out of the car and headed into Jane's house.

**Will drove to the address that Georgie had given him.** Mr. Bennet was quiet during the drive, which was understandable.

"Mr. Bennet, perhaps we should contact the police?"

"I agree. I'm not sure what the statute of limitations for a rape accusation, but I believe that he should be prosecuted for both the kidnapping of my daugher and the sexual assault of your sister. Was she perhaps a minor when it occurred?"

"She had just moved away from home. But yes, she was still 17 at the time."

"I hope we find him here," Mr. Bennet muttered angrily as they pulled into the parking lot of a dilapidated apartment building.

The men got out of the car and headed up to the third floor of the building. Will knocked on the door and a bedraggled looking Wickham opened the door. When he was able to focus on Will he tried to slam the door in Will's face, but Will slammed his arm against it and leaned all of his weight into it. He pushed the door open and he and Mr. Bennet entered the room. Will easily overpowered Wickham and Mr. Bennet began calling out Lydia's name. He went crashing into the bedroom and found his daughter passed out on the bed completely nude with just a sheet gathered around her waist and legs.

"Lydia!" he shouted. She did not stir. Mr. Bennet pulled the sheet up to cover her body and shook her until she began to move on her own. "Lydia!" he cried.

"I've called the police, Mr. Bennet," Will called from the other room.

"Oh God, come on, let's get you out of here." He stood up and found clothes that looked like they might belong to his teenaged daughter and threw them towards her. She was still very groggy and he helped her dress. Having been alerted by Charlie, the police were quick to respond to Will's call and were there in a matter of minutes along with an ambulance.

Mr. Bennet and Lydia rode to the nearest hospital in the ambulance and Will followed the ambulance while the cops drove Wickham to the police station. Will walked into the ER and found Mr. Bennet sitting with a police officer answering questions as best he could.

He walked over and sat down a few chairs down. He disliked eavesdropping, but knew that Mr. Bennet may not have the whole story. Mr. Bennet was struggling to explain his daughter's condition when a doctor came out to speak with him.

"Mr. Bennet, Lydia is awake, she's lucid and she's consented to an exam. Tox screens do show evidence of rohypnol in her bloodstream. I'm going to conduct a physical exam and I'll have the results for you in a few moments. Overall impressions are of no struggle, but that's to be expected with the drug in her system. She's asking for you if you'd like to see her for a moment."

Mr. Bennet stood up and excused himself.

The officer looked at Will and moved over a seat. "You were with Mr. Bennet, weren't you?"

"I was," he nodded.

"How'd you know where to find him?"

Will paused and took a deep breath. "Can I ask you a question first?"

"Of course," the police officer was said with a smile.

"What's the statute of limitations on a sexual assault case?"

"Well, generally it's four years after the crime is committed, but there are a lot of exceptions."

"My sister knew where to find them. She was, uh, she found herself in the same situation as Lydia Bennet, roughly a year ago."

"Does she have any evidence of the assault."

Will shook his head slowly, "She panicked and failed to report it or preserve any of the evidence. She was the same age and I wasn't, I mean, she had just moved here for college and I still lived up north. Both of our parents are gone."

"Well, her testimony would certainly be helpful in the prosecution of this case. I'd have to check with the chief on whether we can charge him for that incident as well, without any evidence."

"I think getting him for this one would be satisfying enough."

"Let me have your number and we'll be in touch."

Will gave the officer his phone number as Mr. Bennet rejoined them. He looked shell-shocked.

"She thought it would be fun. She was having a good time. He bought her drinks and she woke up when we found her." Mr. Bennet broke down and Will stood and placed a strong arm on his shoulder and maneuvered him to a chair.

"17 year olds are his M.O." Will said to the officer who was scribbling notes.

"Unconscious 17 year olds," Mr. Bennet spat out.

They sat in silence until the doctor came out.

"She'll be ready to go in a few minutes, she's just dressing. We found DNA evidence of the assault as well as physical evidence. I'm putting a report together and we'll have it for you in a few minutes officer. Mr. Bennet, could you come with me and we'll get Lydia discharged."

Mr. Bennet nodded and pulled himself together before going back to see his youngest daughter again.

"Mr. Bennet, do you want me to call Lizzy?" Will asked as he stood up.

"No, thank you Will. This is my news to tell." He began to walk, before he stopped again and turned back. "Will, would you let them know we found her and we'll be back soon?"

"Of course," Will said relieved to have something to do. He pulled out his phone and dialed Lizzy's cell.

"Hi Will!" her voice was tense, he could tell that she was hoping for the best and bracing herself for the worst.

"We found her. We'll be at Jane's soon."

"What condition was she in? Is she okay?"

"Your father will tell you everything when we get there. I have to go."

"Okay. Thank you Will."

"See you soon," he said before he hung up. Will was not sure he could accept thanks. If only he had been more open about Wickham's actions, this might have been prevented.

Mr. Bennet entered the waiting room with his arm wrapped around Lydia as he guided her towards the police officer to make a statement.

"What's he doing here," Lydia said not so softly to her father looking at Will.

"He found you dearest. He brought me to you."

Lydia walked up at Will and burst into tears as she gave him a hug. Will could only pat her on the back and whisper nonsense words to her. After a while, Mr. Bennet extracted Will from his daughter's embrace and escorted her to the seat next to the officer. She gave a quick statement about Wickham, how they met, where they'd gone, and what she remembered. When that was finished Mr. Bennet and Will walked her out of the hospital. Will pulled the car around and they were off.

**Author's Note: **I did not intend for this scenario to play out this way. But once I got into it, it was fairly organic. I'm sorry to have left that cliffhanger for so long. Once upon a time I had my own laptop. Then my husband broke his and basically hijacked mine. Finally, I have my own laptop again and this story is coming to its inevitable conclusion, so it will be finished soon.


	16. Closing Arugments

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are in the Public Domain and no disclaimer is needed. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. Section breaks are useless, I've bolded the start of new sections.

**When Mr. Bennet led Lydia into the house**, Mrs. Bennet descended on her with a loud cry of relief.

"My baby! My poor baby!" She led the young girl to the guest room and shut the door behind them.

Lizzy and Jane hugged their father and led him into the kitchen with Charlie in tow. Will looked to Georgie who was standing back from all of the activity.

"Is she okay?"

"I don't know," Will answered. "We got there too late."

Georgie's face crumpled and Will strode towards her and engulfed her in a hug. When he looked up, he saw Lizzy standing on the other side of the room with tears running down her face.

"It's okay. I know," he whispered to Georgie. He let his sister go gently and made sure she was okay, wiping her eyes and rubbing her back gently.

"Go to her, Will," she whispered to him.

He hesitated and she pushed him gently. He turned and walked towards Lizzy.

**Lizzy couldn't believe it.** She couldn't believe what had happened to her sister. She wanted to go down to the jail and slap George Wickham silly before kicking him so hard he would never be able to rape another girl again. She was shaking with a combination of rage, disbelief, and sadness. When she went to check on her mother and Lydia she caught Will in a private moment with Georgie and she found herself unable to move. On a conscious level she wasn't a true witness to the moment as she was unable to truly focus on anything. So it was a shock when he appeared in front of her.

"Will," she burst into tears.

"I'm so sorry, Lizzy," he held her the same way he had held his sister. Engulfing her in a warm, tight embrace until the her body stopped shaking.

"Thank you for finding her. It means so much to all of us."

"I'm sorry we didn't get to her sooner," he said.

"If you and Georgie hadn't helped she'd probably be lying in a ditch somewhere right now," Lizzy's relief brought on a fresh wave of tears and he stood there with her until she could compose herself. "I've got to check on them now and see if she needs anything."

"We're going to get out of your hair," he said reaching into his pocket for his car keys.

"Please don't," she said grabbing his arm. "Please."

He stared into her eyes for a moment before placing his hand on hers and saying, "Of course we'll stay as long as you need us."

Lizzy looked over at Georgie and said, "Thank you so much. You'll never know how grateful we all are."

Georgie could only nod and Will beckoned her into the kitchen while Lizzy went into the room with her sister and mother.

Lizzy knocked on the door to the guest room and heard her sister say "Come in." Lizzy pushed the door open into the darkened room and shut it softly behind her.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

Lydia yawned and said, "I'm still so tired."

"Can I get you anything?"

"No, I'm okay. I just want to sleep more."

"Why don't we let her sleep, Mom." Lizzy put a comforting hand on her mother's shoulder and led her from the room.

When they were away from the room, Mrs. Bennet burst into tears. Lizzy hugged her and tried to soothe her. "Where did we go wrong?"

"Mom, I know George Wickham. On the outside he's a charming, nice guy. She's a teenage girl and he knew exactly how to catch her. She is the victim, there's no blaming her here. And there's no blaming you either. Okay?"

"No, I blame you. If you knew about the roofie thing before we could have warned her to ignore him," Mrs. Bennet was on a tirade and it was building. "You have a duty to your family to warn us of danger when you are aware of it! If you had taken Mr. Darcy's warnings more seriously this never would have happened!"

Lizzy could feel the blood leaving her head and she began to get dizzy. She hated to admit it, but her mother was right. She had brushed Will's warnings off without a second thought. She had been ready to accept Wickham's stories about Will and who knows where she'd be if Will hadn't given her the perfect excuse to get out of that awful date.

"Are you listening to me?"

Lizzy shook herself out of her stupor and looked around. Everyone else had come out of the kitchen when they heard Mrs. Bennet's tirade.

"Margaret!" Mr. Bennet scolded his ex-wife.

Mrs. Bennet looked daggers at her ex-husband before storming off to her own room.

Lizzy could only stand in the hallway, shell-shocked and distraught. Mr. Bennet went to her and put an arm around her. "She's right," she croaked out.

"No, Lizzy," He squeezed her shoulder.

"I knew. Will warned me a long time ago. He didn't tell me the whole story, he couldn't tell me, but I knew enough."

"You didn't know that he would run into Lydia at a Starbucks and sweet talk her away from your mother," Will said quietly.

"Why didn't I say anything? Why?" Lizzy was crying now. Her father tried to hug her, but she did not want any comfort. She didn't deserve any comfort. "No, I have to go," she shook off her father's arm and headed for the front door grabbing her bag. "I'm going home, I'll-I'm going home."

Lizzy slammed the door behind her and ran to her car before anyone could follow her.

**Will ran to the door in time to see Lizzy peeling off down the street.** He cursed under his breath and went back into the house. He was seeing red. How dare she blame Lizzy. How dare she!? He stomped towards the guest rooms with Charlie and Mr. Bennet close on his heels. "Which room is she in?" he asked quietly.

Charlie pointed at the room to the right and Will immediately began pounding on it.

The door flew open and Mrs. Bennet looked ready to spit nails. Her face changed immediately upon seeing who had knocked.

"Mr. Darcy? What can I do for you?"

"You can call your daughter and apologize. How dare you ascribe blame to anyone? You have no idea what's happening. She could have blamed you. She had ample opportunity to blame you and she refused."

"Excuse me, but I will talk to my daughter however I see fit. You are the one who warned her against Wickham, but she-"

"Yes, and perhaps if I had told her the whole story she would have shared it with you. And that is on me! Not her. I thought it wasn't my story to tell, but now I realize that something like this should be shouted from the roof tops!" Will was breathing pretty hard when he stopped and looked at Georgie.

She smiled at him, "Will, if I have to let it go, then so do you."

He only nodded and then walked out of the door.

"He was my ride," Georgie said as the door slammed shut.

**Lizzy opened her front door a crack and peered out**. It was her father. She swung the door open wider and let him in.

"Sorry I left you there, daddy."

"It's okay. It's been quite a day. And the wedding isn't even for a few more days."

"Oh geez, I forgot all about the wedding."

"I don't know about you, but I need to get to bed or I'll be jetlagged the whole week."

"Good night, let me know if you need anything."

"Lizzy, can i ask you something?"

"Of course," she said as they sat down in the living room.

"What is going on between you and Will Darcy?"

"Well, nothing at the moment." She paused and swallowed the lump in her throat. "We were dating for a while, but we're not at the moment."

"May I ask what happened?"

"It's nothing dad. It's just - he proposed!"

"Wow," Mr. Bennet chuckled. "I'm actually not surprised to hear that."

"Why?"

"He really stuck it to your mother after you left."

"He did?"

"Of course he did, he thinks it's his fault," Mr. Bennet shook his head.

"Why would he think that?"

"Lizzy-bean, he thinks he should have told you the whole story long ago."

Lizzy bit her lip and got up from the couch.

Mr. Bennet watched her grab her keys and put on some shoes. "Where are you going?"

"Out," she said before heading out the door.

"Okay, then," Mr. Bennet said with a smile as the door shut behind her.

**Lizzy drove to Charlie's house.** She ran up the steps to his front door and knocked hard and fast. Nobody answered. She knocked some more and waited, but it seemed no one was home. She went back to her car and called Jane.

"Hello?" Jane answered her phone.

"Jane, is Will there?"

"No, Lizzy, he left shortly after you did."

"Oh, okay. Any idea where he is?"

Lizzy could hear Jane talking to Charlie on the other line. "He closed on a house last week," Jane finally said into the phone. "Oh!" Jane added surprised. "I didn't know that!"

"Jane, focus! Where is this house?" More mumbling on the other end of the call.

"It's over on Lake Baldwin Lane. Charlie doesn't know the number, but it's near Hanks Avenue."

"Got it! Thank you and thank Charlie!" Lizzy hung up the call and entered the intersection into her phone.

The drive was not far, just a few minutes, and when she got to the intersection, she parked the car and got out.

Lake Baldwin Lane was a very long street, but she was on the corner of Hanks Avenue and there were roughly 4 houses that Charlie could have been talking about. She looked for signs of Will's car, but there was no sign of it on the street. She finally just decided to call him. She was listening to the ring on her phone, but funnily enough she could hear a ringing phone nearby. She looked around and it was coming from across the street. She watched Will sitting on a bench near Lake Baldwin as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He didn't answer right away, but finally he swiped his phone and answered.

"Hey Lizzy," he sounded sad.

"Hey Will," she said from behind him. He turned around and saw her standing there.

"What are you doing here."

"I came by to thank you."

"For what?" he asked, confused.

"For standing up to my mother. My dad told me what you did."

He nodded his head.

"May I sit?" He nodded again and Lizzy sat awkwardly next to him, leaving a foot of space between them.

"How did you find me?" he asked as he stared at the lake. The moon was full and it reflected off of the water leaving silver ripples moving in a constant pattern.

"I went to Charlie's, but he said you moved. He gave me the basic area."

"And what? You were going to knock on every door until you found me?"

"If I had to, yes?"

"Just to thank me?"

Lizzy looked at him with an eyebrow arched and shook her head. "No, not just to thank you."

"I've moved on," he said gruffly.

"You moved," she corrected him.

"I moved to get away from Jane and the memory of you."

"I'm sorry I didn't call. I know it doesn't help, but I tried to call you every day."

"How do you try to call someone?"

Lizzy shrugged. "I opened my phone app and stared at your contact willing myself to touch call."

Will chuckled. "I see."

"You do know that just because I didn't want to marry you right just now doesn't mean I didn't love you, right? Because it's important that you know that."

"I know that. Intellectually, I know that. I'm not really used to rejection, you see."

"I bet you're not. Has anyone ever said no to you before?"

Will laughed and it sounded magical to Lizzy. "Not really."

"Well, that just means you have to keep me around."

"This is some kind of infinite feedback loop. I want to keep you around so I ask you to marry me and you say no which is why I need to keep you around?"

Lizzy sighed, "Will, would you be happy just being my boyfriend for awhile if I promise that someday I'll probably marry you?"

"Probably?"

"Yes, probably."

"I'm happy just knowing that you love me. The rest will follow in its own good time."

"My thoughts exactly."

"Which is, of course, what you were trying to say to me before I made a huge mess of everything."

"We can't seem to catch a break, you and I."

"It's been an interesting roller coaster ride." Will agreed.

"Can we try again? I mean, start over. Go on dates and have make-out sessions and just be a normal couple for awhile?" Lizzy asked watching his face anxiously.

"I would love that," he replied before leaning forward and putting his hands on either side of her face. "I've missed you."

She responded by leaning even closer to him and meeting his mouth with hers. It was a short kiss compared to previous kisses, but that was fine. They had all the time in the world.

"Would you like to see my house?" he asked standing up.

"That would be nice," she said and he lead her across the street to the corner house that she had inadvertently parked outside of.


	17. By Virtue of the Authority Vested in Me

Disclaimer: Jane Austen's works are in the Public Domain and no disclaimer is needed. Also, I'm a HUGE geek. Section breaks are useless, I've **bolded** the start of new sections.

**Mrs. Bennet would often say that she was never happier than the day when her eldest, sweetest, most beautiful daughter married the Founder and CEO of Bingley Corporations. ** Lizzy, however, would argue that Mrs. Bennet had frequently been overcome by nerves, irritable, and a veritable Mother of the Bride-zilla.

While it's true that Mrs. Bennet was a complete pain in the rear to everyone and anyone up to the moment that Jane was walked down the aisle by her father, when her lovely Janey kissed her new husband, she felt a glow of pride and happiness that would last her for years.

Jane woke insanely early on the day of her wedding, much to Lizzy's hungover dismay. The bachelorette party had ended in the wee hours of the morning, but Jane had bowed out at a very reasonable hour and slept the peaceful sleep of an extremely happy bride. Lizzy watched her closely for signs of nerves, but Jane had never been more sure of anything in her life and it showed on her glowing face.

Lizzy and Jane were sharing a bed in Lizzy's condo as Jane had essentially moved in with Charles, Lizzy's place was so close to the bachelorette location and the wedding venue, and the Bennet clan had taken over Jane's house (with the Mrs. and Mr. in separate bedrooms, of course). Lizzy groaned as she heard Jane shifting off the bed.

"Don't worry, I'm just checking on the cake."

"Cake's fine," Lizzy mumbled.

"I need to make sure it hasn't settled and -" Jane stopped talking because her sister had already gone back to sleep. Jane had insisted on making her own wedding cake and the groom's cake. She hadn't trusted any other local baker with this job. Charlie had requested a replica of the Elephant located in the entrance hall of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Jane had protested that he only requested that because she loved it so much, but he insisted that it was also his favorite place in the world and it was really for him. Nothing to do with her. The smile on his face had told Jane what he really meant when he said that. His choice was to make her happy thereby making him happy.

Jane reciprocated by designing a beautiful five-tiered art deco cake in the style and colors that she knew Charlie adored. It was all over his house and she sometimes caught him admiring his artwork when he thought no one was looking. But Jane was always looking. So, essentially, the groom's cake was for the bride and the wedding cake was for the groom. But only the bride, groom, best man, and maid of honor knew this.

Jane made sure there were no cracks in the fondant of the cake and managed to load it on a rolling cart that she borrowed from her bakery. She placed a large plastic box cover over the cake and taped the lid down. Will Darcy's cousin Richard was stopping by in a few hours to take the cake to the venue. She went to the guest bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. Her hair stylist and make-up artist would be arriving at the venue roughly four hours before the wedding. When she turned off the tap and packed up her toiletries she could hear the shower running in Lizzy's bathroom.

Poking her head in the bathroom she found Lizzy sitting on the shelf in her shower with her eyes shut and the water streaming over her.

"You're not supposed to wash your hair," Jane cried in dismay.

"I wasn't planning on washing it. It's just getting wet. I'll dry it after, no shampoo."

Jane sighed in relief, "Thank you."

"So you're nervous about some things, but none of them is getting married."

"Right," Jane said before shutting the bathroom door.

Lizzy was happy for her sister, she really was, but she would be ecstatic for her after a hot shower and cup of coffee. She dragged her butt out of the shower and pulled on a pair of capri pants and a button down shirt. She heard Jane moving around outside of her bedroom and thought that even if she was happy to get married today, her perfectionist nature had been put in overdrive by the stress of wedding planning and preparation. Lizzy knew that when she stepped out of her bedroom, her home would be spotless. No evidence of decorating a cake or hosting pre-game drinks last night with the girls. Jane claimed to have showered the night before when she returned to the condo, but there was no evidence of this happening in the guest bathroom.

She was a cleaning machine.

Lizzy walked out and found Jane and Richard talking in the foyer with a giant plastic encased wedding cake between them.

"Slowly," Jane repeated - slowly.

"I've got it Jane, your cake is in good hands."

"Are you sure? Because I can ask my assistant - "

"Jane, would you like to come with me?"

"Oh yes, that would be great!"

Lizzy laughed. "Jane, we've got an appointment at the spa for massages and mani/pedis. Lydia is expecting us!"

"Oh, I'll meet you there. Rich, you can drive me, right?"

"No problem. Today, your wish is my command."

"See, it'll be fine. Then I can make sure the cake arrives in good order."

"Okay," Lizzy sighed.

"Great! Can you bring my bag with you? It's in the living room." Lizzy nodded. "Thanks! Let's go," Jane said as she began pushing the cake cart out the door. She was walking so slowly that Lizzy managed to catch up with them at the elevator with garment bags, Jane's duffle bag, and her own tote bag.

Jane frowned at her and all of the things she was carrying and said, "Can you take the next elevator? I don't want any accidents to happen to the cake or the dresses."

"No problem," Lizzy said wryly. As Rich had said earlier, it was her day.

The elevator took forever. Or maybe that was just because Lizzy couldn't put anything down. When the doors finally dinged, they opened to reveal a bellhop cart with a rack for the dresses and a place for the bags. Lizzy laughed out loud. Her sister was always thoughtful even when she was crazy. Lizzy entered the elevator and hung the dresses up and put the bags down. In the garage below she found her car and loaded it up, careful to lay out the dresses so as not to wrinkle them.

The hotel where the wedding was being held was not far away and Lizzy found a great space in the garage. She located another bellhop cart and brought it back to her car. As she was loading it, she saw Rich's SUV inching towards her with Jane nowhere to be seen. She waved as it crawled by and laughed when she saw Jane's blond hair through the back windows. She was sitting with the cake. Her insanity appeared to have reached new heights. She walked her cart behind the SUV and met them at the door (hell, she almost beat them to the door walking). Rich opened the back doors and Jane climbed out. Together they grabbed the rolling cart and carefully placed it on the ground. Jane unlocked the wheels and began pushing it towards the doors on her own.

"I can take her to the spa myself Rich, since we're both here. You can go make yourself useful to Charlie."

"Yes, thank you Rich!" Jane said as she maneuvered the cake cart over the threshold of the hotel. "Lizzy can you check us in while I take this to the kitchen?"

"Of course, dear. I'll meet you back here."

Lizzy confirmed their reservations and got their card keys. She'd always wanted an excuse to stay at the Grand Bohemian, but had never had a reason until now. She shivered with excitement in anticipation of a rooftop wedding at sunset. She was deep in thought when the elevator doors opened in front of her. Will and Charlie were standing in front of her.

"Oh no," Lizzy groaned. "C'mon, you're both going back up with me."

"She's here? She wasn't going to come here until later," Charlie protested.

"She insisted on accompanying Rich and the cake here. She's gone to the kitchen. Come back up and I'll text you when we're on our way to the spa."

"Is she okay? Is she nervous?" Charlie himself was fidgeting, but I suppose that was to be expected.

"She's insane. Nothing is going to go wrong today."

"But, she's not nervous about getting married, is she?" Charlie's biggest fear was apparently Jane changing her mind.

"Getting married is the one thing she's not nervous about." Lizzy patted him on the back and looked up as the elevator dinged and the doors opened.

Lizzy walked to her room and when they arrived, Will used his key to open the door. Lizzy smiled as she walked past him and dropped off her bag. She then went down to the bridal suite and hung up the dresses and put Jane's bag on the bed. Charlie waved at her and disappeared into the elevator heading to the next floor up where his suite was. Will kissed her when they were alone and they chatted about the weather and the wedding while Will waited for an elevator going up and she waited for an elevator going down. When his elevator arrived, Will kissed her on the cheek and disappeared behind sliding doors.

As Lizzy's elevator sped to the ground floor, she thought about what it would be like to spend the rest of her life with Will. Was she worried that she wasn't ready due to relative inexperience? Or was it that she had finally found someone who was able to distract her from her career? Lord knew that other men had tried, she had been hit on enough at local Bar events. But she had been ambitious and uninterested in distractions. So how did the distraction of Will worm its way into her heart?

And then it hit her. The elevator doors slid open and Jane was waiting for her near the front desk. Lizzy stepped off of the elevator and Jane looked concerned. "Are you okay?"

Lizzy shook her head and sat down on a nearby couch. Jane sat next to her and had the good sense not to look at her watch.

"What happened, Lizzy?"

"I've just realized something," she replied sounding shell-shocked.

"What?" Jane's voice had a tinge of panic rising and Lizzy looked at her sister, taking her hand.

"I'm going to marry Will."

"When?" Jane asked, all thoughts of timetables forgotten.

"I don't know, but I know that he's the only man I'll ever love."

"I'm so confused, when did you finally figure this out?"

"What do you mean 'finally'?" Lizzy asked, her sense returning to her.

"Don't change the subject, what happened to bring you to this realization?"

"The other night, Will told me that no one had ever said no to him. It's why he was so upset when I turned down his proposal. And I just realized, that I've never really heard of a guy thinking...I don't know...poorly of me!"

"Of course not, why would anyone - Oh." Jane's face took on the same stupor that Lizzy's had when she had come off the elevator.

"No one until I overheard Will at the bar."

"You do like a challenge," Jane said.

"I sure do."

"You should propose to him!" Jane nearly shouted.

"What?"

"Yes! Do it at the end of your toast! I don't mind, I'm giving you permission."

"Permission to steal your spotlight?"

"Oh yes, of course, Lizzy. Nothing would make me happier." Jane hugged her sister hard. "It would be the cherry on top of my perfect day to see you so happy."

Lizzy had tears in her eyes as she pulled back from the hug, but her smile was brilliant. "We'd better get moving, we're going to be late."

**The sisters walked back to Lizzy's car arm in arm. **They never saw Will step off of the nearby elevator. He had come down to get Charlie a cup of coffee, but had hidden behind a nearby plant when he heard them talking. Sometime in the five minutes since he had last seen Lizzy, she had decided that she would marry him. His mouth turned up with a smile and he seemed to forget what he was doing. The ding of the elevator jarred him back to reality and he walked to the nearby Starbucks in the hotel lobby. He was in such a daze that he nearly forgot to pay for Charlie's decaf (because that man did not need anymore caffeine).

He made the trek back to Charlie's suite and could not believe his good luck to have heard that conversation. He needed to talk to Charlie. And Georgie. Someone who could help him believe his own ears and good fortune.

When he got back to the suite, he handed Charlie his coffee and felt his phone vibrate. He checked it and saw Lizzy's message stating that they were gone. He showed Charlie and sat down on the couch in the suite's common room.

"Will?"

Will looked up at him and blinked. "Yeah?"

"Are we going? I thought we were playing golf."

"Right! We'd better go, we'll miss our tee time." Jarred from his thoughts, he lead the way down to his car. He and Bingley met Rich by the elevators and they all headed down.

"Who's our fourth?" Rich asked.

"Mr. Bennet," Will nearly shouted.

"Wow, okay," Rich looked at him strangely.

"What? I like Mr. Bennet."

"Me too," Charles defended him.

"Good thing," Rich said, "future father-in-law."

Will beamed at his friends as they climbed into Rich's SUV and drove off to Dubsdread golf course.

When they climbed out of Rich's car a short drive later, Mr. Bennet was standing near a golf cart with his rented clubs already strapped in. He looked pointedly at his watch, but said nothing. Charlie looked shamefaced, but explained, "Jane had to accompany the wedding cake to the hotel. I couldn't leave until she did."

The other men confirmed this and Mr. Bennet smiled and shook his head. "I suppose I shouldn't have expected any less from my Janey. She tends to be a perfectionist in moments of stress. You should see her middle school and high school transcripts. Mrs. Bennet and I were rarely happy during those years and only filed for divorce when Jane and Lizzy were old enough to understand. Well, we had better get going. I had the tee time pushed back a bit so as not to back up the first tee."

"Excellent thinking, Mr. Bennet," Charlie enthused.

"Please call me Eddie. No, better yet, call me dad."

"It would be my honor, dad." Charlie tried out the new title.

Will was impressed. Jane must have told Eddie Bennet that Charlie's own parents had passed away nottoo long ago. It meant a lot to Charlie to have someone to call dad. It would mean a lot to Will.

The men teed off and the conversation was normal, but Rich had an unsatisfying report on Jane's condition this morning as she had ridden in the trunk with the cake (at her insistence he had to repeat, three times) and thus had not had a normal conversation with her. Mr. Bennet regaled them of tales of his daughters as young girls and Will began to understand how Lizzy became the woman he knew and loved. He learned that she had watched her parents' marriage dissolve at a time in her life when a girl usually learns to believe in true love. He learned that Lizzy became competitive, throwing herself into sports and the debate club looking to external sources for praise, because after Eddie Bennet moved to California, she received none at home. She was too much like her father.

"I confess that I thought about taking Lizzy with me, I knew that she would not be loved and appreciated in her mother's care, but I could not separate her from her sisters. It was the hardest decision I've ever made, but my work took me out there and I had very little choice in the matter." Eddie Bennet sighed and swung his golf club, launching the white ball neatly at the edge of the green.

"Mr. Bennet, I need to tell you something."

"Go ahead Will."

"I overheard Lizzy and Jane talking in the hotel lobby today before they left. I think Elizabeth is going to propose to me tonight."

"What?" Charlie shouted causing Rich to shank his ball into a water hazard. Charlie looked sheepishly at Rich and said, "Have a mulligan on me. Sorry."

"Jane gave her permission to do it at the end of her maid of honor toast," Will clarified.

"Of course she did," Charlie beamed. "What are you going to say?"

"I don't know," Will said thoughtfully.

"Well, I hope that I one day get the privilege of calling you son as well," Mr. Bennet said as they returned to the carts. Mr. Bennet clapped Will on the back and Will had to look away as a piece of dust came out of nowhere and got into both of his eyes.

**Lizzy attempted to ignore the loud, violent sound of her mother's voice having a panic attack in the lobby of the spa. **She focused on the woman who was attempting to knead the knots out of her back muscles.

"Wow, what just happened?" The masseur asked.

"Oh, that's just my mother out there raising a ruckus," Lizzy admitted.

"You and your mother don't get along?"

"How could you tell?" Lizzy replied wryly.

"I can ask her to leave."

"You can?"

"Of course, I can," the masseur assured her.

"No, that's okay. I like you. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."

"If you say so. It's almost like you just laid down. Not like I've been working for an hour."

Lizzy sighed, "this is the natural state of my body when my mother is in town. I'm used to it."

"Well, I'm sorry to say that our time is up."

"Thank you, Karen." Lizzy sat up holding her towel in front of her.

"No problem, Lizzy. You take care."

Karen let herself out and Lizzy could hear her mother's voice increase in volume as the door opened and swung shut. She wrapped the fuzzy robe around herself and left through a different door. She met Jane and Lydia in the back hallway and they went to get their nails done.

"What's mom caterwauling about?"

"Their massage oil made her break out in a rash. Her massage was cut short and she hasn't stopped yelling about it," Lydia sighed.

"How is that anyone's fault?" Lizzy asked.

"You know how she is," Lydia said.

"It's an unfortunate situation," Jane said. "She's going to ask you to sue them, Lizzy."

"Of course she is."

"How are you doing, Lyds," Lizzy asked as they relaxed into their seats with their feet submerged in warm scented water. Their mother's voice had become even more distant with the change of scenery.

"I'm much better after a bit of pampering. Though I'm still a bit sore in places."

Jane and Lizzy exchanged looks. For years, Jane's wedding would be a bit overshadowed by Lydia's rape (her mother would forever refer to it as Lydia's "adventure"), but it would also be punctuated with a sense of pride at the way Lydia blossomed out of the ashes of the horrific event. Lydia had essentially slept away the few days between returning to Jane's house and the morning of Jane's wedding. Nobody bugged her, nobody begrudged her the rest. It gave Lydia plenty of time for reflection and resolution. She looked at her big sisters with a new light. No longer were they perfect and bossy, respectively. She saw Jane as the mother figure she longed for and Lizzy as the protective and loving big sister that she never knew she wanted.

Lydia knew that her mother loved her, but her mother never realized that clinging to her youngest daughter, doting on her and spoiling her, had done more harm than good. Lydia knew that now. She shouldn't have been allowed to get her own way all the time. Her mother had tried to remedy this when Lizzy and Jane had left home, but it was too little, too late. Only a disaster could make her see what was important. She resolved to get into UCF. She wanted to be near her sisters. It was all she would think about for the next year. She hoped it wasn't too late.

Jane watched Lydia in her silent reverie and hoped that she would come out of this okay. She thought about her parents' marriage and wondered how they had felt on their wedding day. Her mother was no doubt a nervous wreck as she always seemed to be. Her father might have had cold feet. They had been young and he had prized beauty above all. And she had been beautiful. Jane had looked at her parents' wedding album and saw how young they were. But they had also looked happy. It would be 13 years before this happiness eroded to reveal the strain that a loveless marriage had on a couple's foundation. She was almost certain that Lydia had been an anchor baby, a last ditch attempt to save the marriage. She felt sorry for Lydia, for never having known what it was like to grow up with their father.

Lizzy saw Jane watching Lydia with a wrinkle between her brow and felt sick with guilt. Despite her father and Will assuring her that it was not her fault, Lizzy couldn't help but feel that a pall had been cast on Jane's special day and it was her fault. Lizzy owed Jane no less than a perfect wedding day. When their father had left them for the West coast and their mother had all but disowned Lizzy, Jane had become Lizzy's mother as well as her sister. She was at every sporting event and every debate cheering her little sister on. Even when Jane was accepted into culinary school she lived at home so that Lizzy would always have a buffer. If anyone deserved a perfect wedding it was Jane. If she thought sedating their mother would help, Lizzy would do it. But it would only upset Jane, so Lizzy opted not to do it. Lizzy would move mountains to give Jane the happiness she deserved, because she knew Jane would do the same for her.

"Girls, I'm going to the ER," Mrs. Bennet announced to them.

"What? Mom, no!" Jane cried.

"I won't be long, I need to get a shot of epinephrine. It won't take long for me to get ready. It's your day after all."

Lizzy misted up at that. It wasn't often that her mother was so selfless and Lizzy had to agree that her mother's allergic reaction looked horrible. Lizzy resolved to look into that lawsuit if her mom wanted her to. Mrs. Bennet kissed her eldest daughter on the cheek and waved by as she swanned out of the spa and headed to the nearest hospital.

"She was my ride," Lydia smiled after her.

"I have room," Lizzy said laughing.

**Lizzy was standing at the window of Jane's bridal suite staring out at the city of Orlando.** Jane was getting her hair done and Lydia was getting her make-up done which left Elizabeth, dressed and ready to go, with little to do but fret over her proposal.

"Maybe I shouldn't do it," she said nervously.

"No!" Jane replied. "You are definitely doing it."

"She's right, Jane. Men don't like to be proposed to, they do the proposing."

Lizzy and Jane held their tongues on Lydia's knowledge of the opposite sex and Lizzy looked down at her speech. It was neatly typed up and full of gushing about the happy couple and funny stories, but at the bottom in her near illegible scrawl was her proposal. She wasn't sure she was going to make it through without crying. No, make that sobbing. She had cried just writing it. Luckily before her make-up had been completed. The artist had assured her that her mascara was waterproof. Jane moved into the make-up chair and the photographers arrived. They caught some getting ready photos and pictures of Lizzy and Lydia getting Jane's dress out. September means autumn to most parts of the country, but it's still summer in Florida, so Jane had chosen a snow white strapless dress with a heart-shaped neckline, fitted bodice, a single baby blue sash around her waist, and a full ball gown skirt with a train.

Lizzy and Lydia wore baby blue strapless cocktail dresses with a white sash at the waist and a knee-length skirt. They were wearing matching pumps. Jane was wearing vintage white shoes with silver beading on them and teetering heels. In her hair, the hairstylist had worked a white pearl brooch borrowed from Lizzy into her updo. Lizzy had asked that her long red hair be up and down at the same time. The stylist knew exactly what she wanted and pinned most of her hair up into a chignon, but left a long thick strand falling over her shoulder with a single curl at the end.

Mrs. Bennet showed up in time to help them put Jane's veil on. Lizzy noticed that a calmness had fallen over Jane which caused a beatific smile to take up residence on her face that never faltered. Not for a moment. Lizzy could only hope that she was so calm in the face of her own marriage, but she knew she'd be a basket case up to the moment they said the vows.

With everyone ready to go, the wedding planner made sure that Charles had already gone up to the roof and the ladies got on the elevator. Jane clutched her bouquet in one hand and Lizzy's hand in the other. When they arrived at the top of the hotel, they were ushered out of sight to a waiting area. Music began and Mrs. Bennet was whisked off to be escorted to her seat by Will Darcy. Jane whispered in Lizzy's ear urgently, "I thought you should know that Caroline is a groomswoman and will be up there next to Will."

"What?" Lizzy whispered, loudly.

"It's fine, Charles wanted to include her to keep the numbers even."

"Okay, I guess. A little more warning would've been nice," Lizzy whispered as the wedding planner separated them so Lizzy could march down the aisle.

Lizzy tried to mimic the beatific smile that Jane had adopted in her wedding bliss, but could not stop herself from beaming when she saw the groom and his best man at the end of the aisle. Even the sight of Caroline in a form-fitting black cocktail dress with baby blue accents couldn't ruin her elated mood. The men wore baby blue vests and ties under black tuxedos. When Lizzy had reached the altar, she turned and looked back to see Jane and her father standing at the other end and she beamed even more (if that was even possible). Charlie's eyes lit up and Will was smiling like a goofball. Everyone rose and the bride floated down the aisle to meet her groom.

There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

**The DJ was well-chosen and introduced the wedding party with class and style. **Will could never say he had been embarrassed at his best friend's wedding. Caroline was trying to cling to him, complaining that the wedding had no class and the people attending were barbarians. Will cut her off with praise for everything and went to find Lizzy to take their seats.

Charlie and Jane sat at a sweetheart table by themselves. Lizzy and Will were ushered to the head table by the DJ to give their toasts and Will was introduced first. Lizzy was not paying a lot of attention, because she was so worried about her own speech. But he caught her attention soon enough.

"Charlie has been my best friend since high school and through it all, he has been my rock. I used to think he was prone to flights of fancy and too ready to fall in love, but I realize now that he had never truly been in love. Because I look at you two today and I know that this is Charlie in love and it's a great thing. I can only hope that someday soon I will know the same happiness and love as you two do. In fact, Elizabeth Bennet?" Lizzy's head jerked up and she looked at him. Jane and Charlie were grinning at them. "I believe that I have found the love I've been looking for with you. I believe deeply that I want to spend the rest of my life with you and I want to know if you feel the same way. Lizzy, will you marry me?"

Will dropped to his knee and held open a different ring box than the one before. This was not a whim. It was not a hastily picked ring on a lunch break. He had gone back and deliberated over a ring that truly reminded him of her. A single square cut diamond, not to big, not too flashy, but flawless, like her. He looked up into her face and she was crying and smiling. After an excruciating moment she nodded her answer - YES! Will jumped up and hugged her. Jane and Charlie stood up from their chairs and joined them. Lizzy and Jane cried in each others arms and the room had erupted in applause. When things settled down again, Lizzy took the mike and tried to give her toast, but it was crumpled and she couldn't stop laughing. Finally, she looked at Jane and Charlie and said, "Jane, you're the best sister a girl could ever ask for and no one deserves this happiness more than you do. Charlie, you'd better take care of my sister or I will bury you in lawsuits." To which everyone laughed. Lizzy raised her glass and toasted the happy couple.

**After the last guests had finally wandered off and the DJ was long gone for the night, Will and Lizzy were still dancing together to a song heard only by them on the rooftop under the stars.**

"How did you know I would say yes?" Lizzy asked dreamily. Exhaustion had overcome her long ago, but Will's strength kept her standing.

"I overheard you and Jane talking this morning, in the lobby."

"You did? You sneak! I can't believe you beat me to it!"

"I can't believe that you were trying to one up me!" He said kissing her hair softly.

"No, not one upping you. Rectifying a terrible mistake."

"Ah, that's much better. But you must tell me, at what point did you come to this realization?"

"It was on the elevator ride down to the lobby."

"That fast?" he teased her.

"Like lightning," she murmured sleepily.

"I think it's time to get you to bed." Lizzy nodded in agreement, but could not let go of him for fear of falling down. Will swept her up into his arms like the hero of a romance novel and walked to the elevator. He managed to take her bridesmaid dress off of her and tuck her into their bed. He removed his own tux and climbed in beside her. The sun was beginning to rise in the east and they were both falling asleep.

"Will?" she murmured in her sleepy state.

"Yes Love?"

"I love you."

"Ditto," he said as he shut his eyes and fell into the best sleep of his life.

**Author's Note: I had planned to write the epilogue next as some time in the distant future, but I thought you all might like to attend Lizzy's wedding instead. Or did you want both? Let me know in the comments. Your feedback is always appreciated!**


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